Other events in Baltic States

Altogether 125 people in the Estonian defense forces have tested positive for coronavirus, the news portal of public broadcaster ERR writes, cites LETA/BNS.

The conscripts who fell ill at the Johvi campus will be taken to Tapa, where there is more space, and the defense forces are also considering concentrating the sick conscripts in the Seli rehabilitation center and the Paldiski military compound.

The chief doctor of the defense forces, Lt. Col. Targo Lusti, told ERR that although individual infections can be found in all units, the 1st Infantry Brigade is currently facing a major challenge.

"Tapa and Johvi are outbreaks and as the Johvi campus has a very dense population and limited territory, Johvi COVID-19 positive people have been brought to Tapa, where all positive conscripts of the 1st Infantry Brigade have been isolated," Lusti said.

In order to disperse members of the defense forces in Tapa, a temporary accommodation area established on the grounds there is also being used.

At the same time, the defense forces are preparing places to bring infected conscripts from all over Estonia. This is done in case some unit is no longer able to isolate them itself. "For this, we have a rehabilitation center in Seli. We are at present also looking at the currently empty and partially renovated Paldiski campus in this focus," Lusti said.

"A planning group has been convened regarding the Paldiski compound, which from today has started preventive activities, how this campus in Paldiski could be used and to what extent," he added.

Lusti said that patients who do not require round-the-clock monitoring or treatment would be taken to the rehabilitation center. "However, if the person would perhaps otherwise have been directed home, the defense forces are the home of a conscript and in case of such patients we can use Seli," he added.

Lusti said that those who have symptoms of disease and those who have given a positive coronavirus test are isolated in the defense forces. For example, if someone in the infantry section falls ill, they are left out of training.