Popov said with the recent infection rate rise more people have been hospitalized.

"According to the statistics, bed occupancy is highest in the southern hospitals where it is around 83 percent. In the northern region, the situation is not as critical and the average bed occupancy is 60 percent. Today we can say that the worse situation is in the south because several outbreaks have occurred there," Popov said on ETV's "Ringvaade" on Monday.

Limiting scheduled treatment will depend on whether outbreaks in hospitals take the number of patients over the critical limit.

"When we see today that in the regional hospitals, third stage hospitals and central hospitals, there are enough free places for patients, then we can be sure that scheduled treatment is taking place in the same volume as it has been happening during the last months. There is no additional decrease," Popov said.

"But we can see today that the 100 percent occupancy is in the general hospitals, county hospitals where the local outbreaks have started, and it is very specifically related to the hospital. When the hospital has a relatively small number of places, then I hope it will not have a regional impact," he added.

Currently, it is calm in West Tallinn Central Hospital, Popov said. The maximum number of beds for coronavirus patients is 85 and on Monday there were 48 patients being treated. In the past, the highest number of corona patients in the hospital has been 80.

"We have almost had a 100 percent bed occupancy, but today we can breathe a little," he said.

In Popov's opinion, the regional restrictions to limit the spread of the virus have worked but something else needs to be done because the number of people needing hospital treatment will rise.

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