Cracks prompt evacuation of Vilnius apartment building
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An apartment building on Gabijos Street was evacuated due to cracks / J. Stacevičius/LRT
An apartment building on Gabijos Street in Vilnius was evacuated on Monday night after cracks appeared in its walls.
“We received a report about cracks in the stairway and several apartments of the building at 30 Gabijos Street,” Saulius Žilinskas, a spokesman for the Fire and Rescue Department, told BNS on Monday night.
He added that the department sent experts to evaluate the cracks and residents were evacuated “for safety reasons”.
Vilnius Municipality head of administration Povilas Poderskis later told BNS that there were 72 apartments in the building and between 100 and 200 people were evacuated.
Lithuania's capital Vilnius is preparing to set up a 700-bed makeshift hospital in its largest exhibition centre, as the city fears its health system may soon get overloaded by coronavirus cases.
Coffee grounds instead of sand – Vilnius tests novel way to tackle icy streets
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Snow in Vilnius. / E. Blaževič/LRT
Vilnius is testing a new way to treat icy sidewalks, sprinkling them with coffee grounds instead of sand or salts.
Used coffee, donated by several cafes in the Lithuanian capital, is being used this week to make sidewalks less slippery on Gedimino Avenue, Totorių and Vokiečių Streets.
“It s a pilot project that we will try this week and we ll see if it s working,” according to Povilas Poderskis, the chief of administration at Vilnius Municipality.
With snowfall and below-zero temperatures continuing for weeks, sidewalks across the country are covered in ice and pressed snow, making them extremely slippery if untreated.
Vilnius hospitals report nearly all beds for Covid-19 patients full
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Medics fighting Covid-19 in Lithuania (associative image). / D. Umbrasas/LRT
In Vilnius region, almost all hospital beds for Covid-19 patients have been occupied, Santara Clinics, the largest hospital in the Lithuanian capital, said on Monday.
“There are 812 beds for hospitalisations, 751 are filled,” including 79 out of 87 places in intensive care units, Gitana Letukienė, spokeswoman for Santara Clinics, told BNS on Monday.
“Every day is a challenge for the medics on how to manage the flow of patients,” she added.
In Santara Clinics, 92 percent of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients were occupied, as well as 94 percent of beds in the intensive care unit.