“Lockdown”” and Curfew for a Month

22.10.2021 Aleksandrs Koposovs, the member of the board

Not long ago, an emergency regime was introduced throughout the territory of Latvia, according to which certain restrictions and obligations were established (from October 11, 2021 to January 11, 2022). Nevertheless, considering that the epidemiological situation in the country has notably deteriorated and it was urgently necessary to introduce additional restrictions, on October 20, 2021 new amendments to Order No. 720 of October 9, 2021 “On the proclamation of emergency situation” were adopted.

What new has been added and under which new rules do we have to live from now on?

As we remember, according to the previous version of this Order employees without vaccination certificates or certificates of recovery (with Covid-19 test or antigen test) were allowed to work on site, if, having assessed the employee’s duties and work circumstances, the risk of infection or  a possible risk to the health of the third parties has not been determined. In other words, it could be presumed that mandatory vaccination for all employees in the company was not necessary.

Whereas now a new clause 5.7.1 has been added to the Order, according to which all those other employees who were not mentioned in this normative enactment, that is, those who, after having assessed their  duties and work circumstances, were not asked to present vaccination certificates or certificates of recovery  and who were working on site, now must have a vaccination certificate or a certificate of recovery starting from December 15, 2021.

Thus, from December 15, 2021, all employees who work on site, must have a vaccination certificate or a certificate of recovery.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS RELATED TO BUSINESSES AND NOT ONLY

The following requirements were introduced for the period of time from October 21, 2021 till November 14, 2021:

1. It is forbidden for residents to move during the period from 20:00 to 5:00, establishing the obligation to be at their place of residence or location. This prohibition does not apply to those who can present a written confirmation and identity document (passport or id-card) and:

  • who are heading to or from their workplace or office or carry out work or official duties (in this case, in a written confirmation, one must indicate their name, surname, personal code, address of the place of residence or the reason for leaving the place of residence and time, name and address of the workplace and employer’s telephone number or their designated contact person’s telephone number);
  • displacements that are necessary to obtain psychological support, medical services (including vaccination against Covid-19) or animal health care services or to visit a 24-hour pharmacy (in this case, in a written confirmation one needs to indicate their name, surname, personal code, residential address or the reason for leaving the place of residence and time, and also the place of receipt of the service);
  • displacements to get to the place of providing passenger transportation at the airport, port, railway station or bus station or to return from them to the place of residence (in this case, in written confirmation, one must indicate their name, surname, personal code, residential address or the reason for leaving the place of residence and time, as well as the place of receipt of the service);

2. A private vehicle is allowed to be used at the same time only by the members of one household or two persons who are not are members of one household (all people in the car must use facial masks).

3. Work at the place of the trading place and the place of delivery on the spot business services can start no earlier than 6:00 and end not later than 19:00 (working hours of gas stations and 24-hour pharmacies, opening hours of tourist accommodation, vaccination points, and time of delivery of urgent utilities and liquidation services accidents, public transport services, passenger transport services and cargo and related services, delivery services are not limited).

4. All employees who work on site (including those vaccinated and recovered persons), coming to the workplace, should confirm in writing that they do not have acute symptoms of an infectious disease respiratory tract and they were not in direct contact with persons who need isolation, home quarantine or self-isolation.

5. It is forbidden to provide on-site economic services that related to the exhibition, gambling, attractions, beauty salons, well-being, active recreation, physical activities, sports, tourism (excluding accommodation and foreign trips), photography and video services (excluding the production of photographs for documents and for ensuring the work of the media), consultations on place, collective hunting.

6. Household services, excluding the above, can be provided, providing one visitor with at least 15 m2 of the publicly available area of premises.

7. Trading services on the spot can be provided only by:

  • goods stores where 70% of the assortment are grocery goods;
  • goods stores where 70% of the assortment are hygiene products;
  • pharmacies (including veterinary);
  • shops of optical goods;
  • gas stations;
  • animal feed stores;
  • places of sale of the press;
  • bookstores;
  • places of telecommunication services and goods;
  • places of flower trade;
  • registered bus stations where ticket sales are provided.

8. The service provider must ensure the distribution of goods that were acquired online only outside the trading premises (visitors are not allowed to stay in the premises of the trade place) or by delivering the goods.

9. At the point of sale, the service provider, must provide one visitor with at least 25 m2 of the publicly available area of the premises. In a trading place where one visitor has a publicly accessible area premises less than 25 m2, only one visitor is allowed at a time.

During home quarantine, fully vaccinated or recovered persons are entitled to receive a certificate of temporary incapacity for work.

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