From today, up to 1,000 people will be able to gather indoors at the same time, as well as restrictions on catering providers and places of culture, sports and religious activities will be reduced, amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers regulations “Epidemiological safety measures to limit the spread of Covid-19 infection” are envisaged.
No changes are planned for outdoor gatherings – as at present, the maximum number of people allowed is up to 3000.
Restrictions on catering providers are being reduced by allowing eight visitors to sit at one table indoors instead of the previous four and by waiving the limit on the number of people at tables outdoors.
Catering companies will be allowed to work until 2 am, ie two hours longer than the current regulations allow. This condition would apply to places where the main service is catering and where people are sitting at tables.
The required space per person in restaurants, shopping centers and cultural venues is also reduced from four square meters to three square meters. In turn, the requirement for caterers to ensure a distance of two meters between the tables is maintained.
Similar relaxation of restrictions is applied to cultural, sports and religious activities, which will also be able to work until 2 pm, and also in them one person will have to provide only three square meters. The Ministry of Health (MoE) explains that such sites are basically organized and can provide control over the flow of people and compliance with Covid-19 containment regulations.
On the other hand, the operation of entertainment venues, including discos and nightclubs, where the main service is entertainment, such as dancing or games, is associated with a significantly high risk of Covid-19 proliferation. This is proved by epidemiologically investigated cases both in other countries and in Latvia, the Ministry of Health notes. Therefore, their working time restrictions will not be changed – it has been determined that they will be able to work no longer than 24 hours in the future.
Such places are also visited by a larger number of foreign tourists and, taking into account the fact that at least every third case of Covid-19 in Latvia is related to being abroad, this is an aggravating circumstance, the ministry explains. Therefore, the operation of these places is set until 24:00 in order to limit the time when people gather in such places, where it is difficult to control the gathering restrictions.
However, the condition is maintained that the number of people gathering at a given place at the same time must not exceed 50% of the capacity of the place.
In view of these changes, as well as the fact that 3,000 people can gather in the open air at the same time from 1 August, the norm that obliges event organizers or service providers with more than 1,000 square meters to develop action plans to implement Covid-19 measures to restrict the spread at the place of provision of the economic service or at the place of the event.
The new norm stipulates that economic service providers and event organizers, who can gather more than 500 people during the event or during the provision of economic service, both indoors and outdoors, must develop a plan of measures to limit the spread of Covid-19, including human flow planning. and other measures.
In theater performances, concerts and film screenings, spectators are in their seats, so these events are associated with a significantly lower risk of Covid-19 spread. Recognizing also that it is possible to segregate human flows in such events, an exception is made for such cultural events, allowing more than 50% of the potential capacity of the facility to participate in the event, provided that groups of 300 people are segregated, which do not encounter each other at any stage of the event.
This means that these people must have a separate entrance, exit, toilets and a place between breaks. The rules already stipulate that if spectators are to have their seats in their seats at the cultural event, a distance of one meter between the seats must be provided instead of two meters.
Fixed personalized seats mean that each visitor has their own seat, which does not change during the event, and epidemiologists of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control can identify the person in the seat and contact to take anti-epidemic measures.
Information on the person in the fixed personal seating shall be kept for 30 days for the purposes of the epidemiological inquiry.
At the same time, it is stipulated that the members of amateur choirs and ensembles must observe a physical distance of two meters, because, unlike speaking, singing produces aerosols, which result in the transmission of infection much further.
These conditions do not apply to professional teams, as they are considered to be a work team whose members are together on a daily basis, while amateur teams meet separately once a week in addition to their daily routines, thus running the risk of encountering their colleagues and other teams. thereby increasing the risk of spreading the infection.
It also stipulates that the new list of countries from which you must return must comply with the 14-day self-isolation. The VM explains that the SPKC publishes this list on its website on Friday, and under the current regulations, the list takes effect immediately. Consequently, it is difficult for the public to apply it, as it is not possible to trace from when compliance with the relevant conditions must be ensured. It is therefore proposed to set a specific point in time at which the list of countries published by the SPCC will apply.
Given that there may be situations where a person who has already contracted Covid-19 and cannot infect other people crosses the Latvian border, it is determined that these people may not observe self-isolation when coming from a country that is published on the SPKC website as a country. which are subject to special precautionary or safety measures. In such cases, the person should have a doctor’s report on the disease Covid-19, which the person can present to the family doctor. If necessary, your doctor may prescribe a Covid-19 antibody test for these people to check that the disease is progressing.
Given that in some situations, individuals who test positive for Covid-19 require health care in a medical facility, such as an antibody test to verify that a person is indeed infectious, the possibility has been introduced that a person with a confirmed Covid-19, you can leave your place of residence to see a doctor on a doctor’s appointment.
In this case, the person goes to the medical institution, taking the precautionary measure to the maximum – using the medical face fee, not using public transport and observing other precautionary measures in accordance with the doctor’s instructions.
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