“From a medical point of view, the pandemic has been kind of overcome. The humanity has vaccines, we know what we have to do, we have testing programs, we are fully supplied with vaccines, and science has given answers to almost all questions that are relevant for us,” he told reporters on Friday.
According to the minister, the only problem is that unvaccinated people comprise the highest proportion of severe patients in hospitals.
“When we speak about the political aspect of the end of the pandemic, we see that governments, ministries no longer need to take some specialized decisions, do not need to plan lockdowns, shutdowns, and not just in Lithuania but also in many European Union’s (EU) countries,” Dulkys said.
Now the authorities had to address the consequences of the pandemic related to the long COVID-19, psychological wellbeing, the minister noted.
Meanwhile, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides told the same news conference that the Community’s countries had to get ready for winter.
“You have never heard me saying that the pandemic is over. What I can say is that we have had decreasing numbers in the last few weeks, but as I said earlier we must not let our guard down,” the EU commissioner said adding that the “best protection is vaccination” with both original and adapted vaccines.