Last spring, a number of decisions were made on how residents should behave in public places so that they would not endanger one another. While, for example, the National Public Health Center looked after people infected with COVID-19, the task of the Lithuanian Police was to ensure public order: to monitor parks, squares and many other public areas.

Ensuring public order during the peak of the pandemic

The Lithuanian Police was one of the most burdened services involved in ensuring public order.
After the police obtained the right to prepare reports of administrative offenses for non-compliance with the quarantine rules, there were weekends during which more than 150 such offenses were recorded.

Nevertheless, Ramūnas Matonis, Head of the Communication Unit of the Police Department, notes that even though there were days when many protocols were drawn up, the inhabitants became more and more responsible.

‘Of course, there were days when we prepared many protocols, but residents realized later,
that compliance with the rules is necessary for their own safety, and not only because of the fear of fines,’ said Matonis.

Most of the offenses concerned people not staying in isolation. According to the Administrative Violations Code, breach of the obligation to self-isolate was and still is subject to a fine of 500 to 1500 euros.

Moreover, quite a few violations were noted in connection with gathering in one place and not wearing masks. Nevertheless, R. Matonis noted, that police tried to influence the awareness of residents not by means of penalties, but through information campaigns. ‘We chose the following tactic: informing as much as possible instead of punishing. We conducted information campaigns and developed preventive materials quite intensively which, I believe, have brought good results,’ said Matonis.

The Easter weekend was one of the biggest challenges for police officers, when it was important to ensure that residents stayed at home and did not travel to other towns. About 4,000 officers were on duty then.

‘It was necessary to close all Lithuania, it was not possible to move freely between towns, which was quite a challenge and required preparations. We are extremely grateful for Riflemen’s Union, which helped the police, as well as for Military Police, sponsors, and volunteers. Thanks to their help, we were well prepared, and we did not encounter any major problems.
Anyway, people were not traveling a lot that weekend and those who had already decided to leave their homes were basically friendly. We did not want the control to be very strict, we asked the officers not to be too harsh and stay friendly. There were even such situations when residents brought food, coffee, tea for our officers, so we felt the support of people,’ recalled Matonis.

Looser rules – new challenges

After the quarantine was lifted, the restrictions were relaxed, so police control is no longer as strict as before. Both the police and the National Public Health Center and also other offices are currently monitoring how residents adhere to the principles of self-isolation.

Currently, approx. 14,000 people are in isolation. Robertas Petraitis, director of National Public Health Center, notes that the increase in the number of people staying in isolation was caused by the relaxation of residents during the holiday season.

‘After all, it should be said that loosening of rules had an impact on the spread of the virus. Good weather, meetings with friends, holidays - all this made last summer extremely busy for us, epidemiologists. Both the number of infections and the number of contacts were increasing. We note several virus outbreaks that broke out at smaller events. The residents were informed about it, and the media often raised this subject,’ said Petraitis.

Nevertheless, Petraitis underlines, that loosening of rules is not the only reason of the growing number of patients and people in isolation. Fake news undermines the trust of residents in public institutions, which is why not everyone wants to follow the rules.

‘The coronavirus pandemic is a real challenge for all of us. I mean not only following the rules, taking care for our health, but also the general information background, which is becoming more and more confusing. There is fake news spreading that is not scientifically based and there is even encouragement not to trust government reports. All this happens on social media where fake profiles are created and unreliable information is being spread.

I think residents may indeed have trouble verifying all the information, they may start to have doubts. I urge everyone to remain vigilant and closely follow official communications published on the official websites of public offices,’ said Petraitis.

R. Matonis agrees that the most important thing today is the awareness of people. ‘Our health and lives are an absolute priority. We believe that residents will remain responsible.’

Information of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania