Lithuania to allow small shops, beauty services to reopen next week

The Lithuanian government on Wednesday decided to allow non-food retailers and beauty services to reopen next week, reported Xinhua, quoting a government statement.

Starting Monday, shops with floor space no more than 300 square meters, hairdressers and other services will be allowed to reopen if they can ensure at least 20 square meters of floor space per customer or serve only one customer at a time, according to the statement.

Outdoor non-food trade and outdoor individual sports activities with a coach will be allowed as well.

Also on Wednesday, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte urged people in Lithuania to think twice before going to shops or various services and called on the service providers to get tested for COVID-19 before returning to work.

"Customers should carefully consider if they truly require certain services as early as next week because the recommendation to avoid unnecessary contacts still stands," Simonyte was quoted by local news agency Elta as saying.

The existing nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, as well as restrictions on travel between municipalities and gatherings, are still in effect.

Lithuania introduced a second nationwide lockdown from Nov. 7 till Nov. 29 and later extended it until Feb. 28 due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus in the Baltic country.

So far, Lithuania has registered 187,991 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,988 deaths, according to the Department of Statistics.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 242 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 63 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Feb. 9.