President Alar Karis will be in Valga County on Thursday and Friday as part of his first official visit within Estonia. There he will be discussing with municipal mayors, council chairmen, medics and school directors how they are coping with the health crisis.
“As president I wanted my first visit to be to one of the counties furthest from the capital, to discuss how things are going there and the problems they’re having, and so I chose Valga County,” President Karis explained. “Sometimes I get the impression that it’s unfairly sidelined and forgotten about. Naturally, the coronavirus crisis will leave its mark on my visit, since its impact is being as strongly felt in Valga County as elsewhere. The doctors there are doing a very good job of keeping it at bay. I want to find out for myself, on the ground, why the vaccination rate in Valga municipality is lower than in neighbouring Tõrva and Otepää municipalities. I also want to hear from the locals how language immersion is coming along in schools in Valga and how youngsters from Russian-speaking families are integrating in Estonian-language schools.”
During his visit, the head of state will be meeting with the municipal mayors of Valga, Tõrva and Otepää.
President Karis will also be meeting with healthcare workers from Valga and Otepää to discuss the pandemic situation and how vaccination is progressing. He will be visiting Valga Hospital and its doctors’ surgery and talking to family doctors and nurses from Otepää.
The head of state will also be paying a visit to Valga Gymnasium and discussing language immersion issues with its director and the directors of Valga Priimetsa School and Valga Basic School.
While in the county, President Karis will also be introduced to the work of the local rescue team and to rescuers themselves. Kuno Tammearu, the director-general of the Rescue Board, will be providing the head of state with an overview of activities in the field.
In Tõrva municipality, President Karis will be visiting the agricultural company Hummuli Agro, which rears dairy cows and grows grains and rapeseed. He will be shown the teaching barn being constructed by the company for the ‘Sipsik’ kindergarten in Hummuli, which will give its pupils the chance to learn about agriculture and all things rural.
