Total Lockdown for Easter? Experts say if it’s possible

The third wave of the coronavirus pandemic is underway in Poland, and the daily numbers of infections and deaths are at a record high. In such a situation, can the government decide to introduce a lockdown with a ban on movement during Easter? We asked experts if this was a probable scenario and if such a solution made sense.

1. Currently, there is a lockdown throughout Poland – shopping malls, museums, swimming pools, hotels and schools remain closed
2. This is not yet a complete lockdown, which was introduced in March 2020.
3. Today, at a press conference, the government will announce the restrictions on Easter. Will we have a hard lockdown?
4. We asked the doctors if such a scenario was possible
5. Do you want to live longer? Make a simple test and find out how! 
6. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

A hard lokdown for Easter? It is “epidemiologically justified”

Each day brings new increases in the number of cases and deaths of patients. The number of ventilators and vacant hospital beds is decreasing, which means that healthcare in Poland is in a difficult situation. Easter can be a source of another wave of infections if Poles decide to visit their families or visit churches in large numbers. Experts are considering whether the Polish government will decide on a complete lockdown – one that will be introduced, inter alia, by no movement.

— Today, such a decision by the rulers is highly probable – comments for MedTvoiLokony prof. Andrzej Fal, head of the Department of Allergology, Lung Diseases and Internal Diseases at the hospital of the Ministry of Interior and Administration. – But I suppose the government will wait and evaluate the situation after the next four or five days.

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Dr. Bartosz Fiałek believes that the decision to temporarily lockdown is justified in the current situation.

– If I were the ruler, I would choose a temporary, 14-day lockdown – based on what we see in hospitals, but also on the streets, where not everyone is responsible, not all follow the sanitary and epidemiological rules. Considering many variables, i.e. social behavior, the British variant, delayed reactions of the government and the current number of infections with the new coronavirus, the decision to temporarily lockdown is justified. However, it is hard to say what the rulers will do. It seems to me that these decisions are often made under pressure. So if there is a lot of social or media pressure to introduce a hard lockdown, it may, to some extent, influence the decisions of the rulers. But I doubt that the country will actually be closed, although from an epidemiological point of view a temporary lockdown with a ban on movement would be appropriate – adds Dr. Fiałek.

Lockdown for Easter? Dr. Dzieiątkowski: visits to churches with święconka, we should rather skip

If the Polish government does not decide to introduce a complete lockdown, experts recommend responsibility and partial abandonment of traditional Easter rites.

– In my opinion, Easter will look similar to Christmas, i.e. meetings will be allowed only in a small family circle – says virologist Dr. Tomasz Dzieiątkowski. – Visits to churches with święconka, we should rather forgive ourselves, but we can count, I think, on reasonably limited meetings with our loved ones. This is because intra-family infections occur relatively rarely – he emphasized in an interview with Onet Wiadomości.

Lockdown in Poland? Prof. Fal: “We can wake up with the unpleasant awareness of new variants”

According to prof. Andrzej Fala, Easter without following the rules of the sanitary regime may have serious consequences.

– I read recently that at the moment it is impossible to buy a trip or a flight to another country during Easter, which clearly shows what our intentions are regarding the upcoming holidays. I am very afraid of this, because we say many countries started their third growth earlier than us, but if such crowded planes arrive from there, the virus will mess up somewhere in the Greek islands or in the middle of Africa. And then we can wake up with the unpleasant awareness of new variants, which we should avoid at all costs. I would like to believe that only people vaccinated with two doses go on vacation. I would like to believe, but I have nothing to support such an assumption – adds the expert.

Safe Easter in a pandemic. What not to do?

Celebrating Easter in Poland involves visits to the church. Catholics participate in masses, but also in blessing food before Easter Sunday. Meanwhile, according to the American CDC, it is in the church that it is easiest to get infected with the coronavirus. First of all, because during the service one answers to the priest, sings, squeezes the hands of other believers, and also takes communion. These activities increase the risk of transmission of the virus. In addition, the church is a closed room where people gather, often at risk.

So when it comes to this year’s Easter, it will be safer to spend it at home, using the services available on the Internet, radio and television. In the event that we are unable to give up religious rites, we should strictly follow the sanitary regime to avoid coronavirus infection.

1. Check also: Prof. Piotr Kuna: lockdown is evil, it will shorten our lives

Most Poles cannot imagine Easter without meeting their family. Meanwhile, the CDC believes that this is the third of the activities most conducive to coronavirus infection. Dr. Anthony Fauci is of a similar opinion, commenting on it like this: – There is one person who is asymptomatically infected at the meeting, and then suddenly four or five people from that meeting become infected.

So the safest thing to do is to give up Christmas breakfast altogether. If this is not an option, first of all, we should avoid meeting people at risk (seniors or chronically ill family members), and monitor our health condition. If we have symptoms of coronavirus, we should skip Christmas meetings – for the sake of other family members.

Also read:

1. Breakthrough information on convalescents. Seniors at a disadvantage
2. Scientists: The pandemic didn’t start at the Wuhan market. There are more surprises
3. Dr. Dzieiątkowski on the “dangerous” AstraZeneki vaccine: the more likely it is that a meteorite will hit us
4. What to do to “get rid of the plague and get back to normal”? Experts have no doubts
5. Poles are still afraid of the virus. The number of people willing to vaccinate is growing [STUDY]

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