The Lithuanian parliament, Seimas, unanimously approved a pay rise of 60–100 percent for healthcare workers, including residents, who work in coronavirus hotspots during the quarantine.

The pay rise will be in effect from the beginning of the quarantine on March 16. The new amendments were drafted after the parliament failed to pass the previous version of the bill last week due to a dispute between the ruling party and the opposition.



Read more: Coronavirus: 135 medics infected in Lithuania, nearly 1,000 in isolation

The opposition sought a pay rise for all healthcare workers and not just the frontline medical staff. On Tuesday, it voted in favour of the new amendments which it deemed acceptable as a compromise solution.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga on Tuesday said that medical residents would also qualify for a pay rise.

“Amendments to the Laws on Medical Practice and Dental Practice have been registered today in order to make it possible to increase salaries of medical residents by 15 percent,” he told reporters.

The pay rise would be financed from the national budget, instead of the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund, the minister added.