Useful information about COVID-19 related emergency situation in Estonia

In order to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Estonian government has declared an emergency situation which is likely to remain in place until May 1. Here we collect for you the most important information and links to sources providing the official information and virus related regulations by the state authorities.

The Government of Estonia has declared the emergency situation on 12th March due to the worldwide pandemic of Coronavirus COVID-19 and the threat of mass infections. The purpose is to contain the spread of the virus.

Unless decreed otherwise by the government, the emergency situation remains in force until 1 May 2020. It is decided to:

 

• - ban public gatherings
• - implement distant learning at schools
• - implement sanitary controls at the border
• - close cultural institutions

Additional measures were introduced on March 24:

• - at least 2 meters distance between people in public places, except in homes and when this cannot be ensured;
• - up to 2 people to be together in public space, it does not apply to families living together, and to people performing public duties (as of March 25);
• - closing of shopping centres, except for grocery stores, pharmacies, telecommunication outlets, bank offices, parcel stations (as of March 27):
• - shopping centre eateries are only allowed to sell take-away-food;
• - in shops that remain open people may move alone or in pairs, keeping at least 2 m distance;
• - disinfectants must be provided at the entrances and exits of all such shops;
• - restaurants and bars to be closed at 10 pm, only take-away and home delivery will be allowed after that time;
• - entertainment venues will be closed.

All restrictions will be reviewed after two weeks. All people living in Estonia are invited to responsible behavior to protect ourselves, our close ones and people with weakened immune system like the elderly and chronically ill.

The first channels for trustworthy information would be the webpage of Government of Estonia and dedicated page kriis.ee.

Additionally, Estonia has created the state-approved automated chatbot Suve to provide information in English and Estonian. Besides the webpage mentioned above, Suve is already working on webpages:

Estonia’s Health Board; Ministry of Social Affairs; International House of Estonia

All of these mentioned links are also additional sources for more specific, virus related information.

Information about foreigners rights to stay and work in Estonia in current emergency situation can be found at Police and Border Guard Board webpage; information about travelling and border crossing can be found on this separate page of kriis.ee. 

The crisis hotline 1247 of the Emergency Response Centre (in cooperation with the specialists of the 116 006 victim support crisis hotline) is now offering also psychological first aid.

Academic institutions

All Estonian universities have taken measures to comply to the emergency situation and also support you in the mean time. We recommend you to follow their webpages for more information:

Dedicated page of University of Tartu

News page of Tallinn University

Dedicated page of TalTech

Instructions by University of Life sciences

Virus related infromation at Estonian Academy of Arts

Estonian business School news page.

Also, all of EURAXESS Estonia centresremain at your service.

Useful:

Compilation of links and phone numbers in English:infokanalid_eng.pdf

Compilation of links and phone numbers in Russian:infokanalid_rus.pdf

Links to the European Commission´s and DG Research and Innovation´s actions on Corona virus at the central EURAXESS website.

European Research Area Corona platform (incl. latest H2020 calls deadlines updates, link to related FAQ etc.)
List of open calls for research on COVID-19 compiled by Estonian Research Council (partly in Estonian only).

Interesting:

Volunteering platform: COVID-19: give help and ask for help

Contact-free borrowing of books at UT Library and Tallinn University libraries

The creation of Suve - news by Invest in Estonia.

Last updated: 09.04.2020