RIGA, Nov 16 (LETA) - The strict lockdown introduced in October was a few weeks late, Margarita Melnikova, the head of Jekabpils Regional Hospital, admitted in an interview with LETA.

Commenting on the need to rapidly set-up extra beds for Covid-19 patients in the fall, she admitted that the Ministry of Health (MoH) probably did not have a bed deployment plan.

"But we also have to look at how this was being planned, or whether the fact of vaccination was taken into account, because, undoubtedly, it was mostly unvaccinated people who ended up in the Covid-19 wards and especially in the intensive care wards," said the head of the hospital.

She emphasized that, on average, 90 percent of Covid-19 patients that were hospitalized were unvaccinated.

"Of course, if, for example, the Ministry of Health had estimated that we will be 70 percent vaccinated in the autumn, then of course it could be that the need for beds would be much less than at present, but the vaccination coverage at the moment is still not enough to have a so-called herd immunity," said Melnikova.

She also stressed that vaccination has been going on for quite a while, but scientists, immunologists and infectologists have said that the vaccine is most effective in the first six or eight months after vaccination. Another important factor is whether as many people as possible can be vaccinated in the shortest possible time to minimize the spread of the virus.

"In my opinion, the so-called lockdown was introduced a few weeks too late, because the infection had time to accelerate, and in principle it was like a fire. If it is not extinguished in time, it spreads very quickly," Melnikovs said.