2020-12-02
Within the scope of a 2-Month-Long COVID Restrictions imposed by the Government of Georgia, intensive testing program will be active throughout the country. At the same time, a special task force has been established with an instruction of the Prime Minister of Georgia to prepare the country for the vaccination stage and uninterrupted logistical support of COVID vaccination. Citizens of Georgia will be subject to altered procedures of entry to the country. These decisions were made by the Inter-Agency Coordination Council led by Giorgi Gakharia, Prime Minister of Georgia at the Government Administration today.
It was mentioned at the meeting that the state will administer about 20 000 tests a day, which will be supplemented by private lab indicators. At the same time, application of antigen-based tests will be particularly extended, which generate response in almost 20 minutes.
The Head of Government of Georgia noted that by taking into consideration the challenging epidemic situation and administered tests increasing on a daily basis will facilitate the detection of more infected individuals, which will thereby slow down the community transfer rate and stabilise the situation to a certain extent. Said measures are aimed at informing citizens about the infection status in parallel with the current restrictions, along with their efficient triage resulting in light and less acute cases to be self-isolated, while considerable cases to be placed at COVID Hotels and acute or critical cases to be hospitalised.
The Prime Minister of Georgia instructed all the relevant institutions to be mobilised within the 2-month period in view of their resources and workload.
Also, the Council has ruled to alter the procedures of entry to the country for the citizens of Georgia. Namely, a citizen of Georgia who arrives without a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test will no longer be required to stay at a quarantine hotel but will get self-isolated for 12 days. As for the citizens of Georgia who arrive with a negative PCR test obtained within the past 72 hours, will be obliged to self-isolate for 8 days.
Citizens with no means of self-isolation will be provided with a stay at quarantine hotels by the State.
Preparation for the vaccination stage was also discussed at the meeting of the Council today. Prime Minister of Georgia instructed the establishment of a specialised task force for the effective flow of the process with an engagement of all relevant institutions, which means a timely import of vaccines as well as the execution of all the preliminary preparation works both in terms of infrastructure and logistics to make sure that the country gets ready to start the vaccination process.
Amiran Gamkrelidze, Head of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) noted that active work is carried out with COVAX platform in relation with the immunisation, along with the progress achieved in negotiations with individual pharmaceutical companies with an instruction of the Prime Minister of Georgia and with an engagement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and overseas diplomatic missions of Georgia.
Availability of hospital beds in the healthcare sector of the country was also discussed at the meeting of the Council today along with the measures taken in addition for the mobilisation of extra resources.
Also, with an instruction of the Head of Government of Georgia, enforcement of COVID restrictions imposed under the 2-Month-Long Plan of the Government will become tighter, including the uniform wearing of facemasks and limitations set on mobility. Detailed information on the enforcement of COVID restrictions was shared by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia and Head of Labour Inspection Department.
Since the detection of the first case, 143 376 test-positive cases of COVID-19 have been detected so far in Georgia, out of which 121 621 individuals have recovered and 1 342 died.
At present, 1 980 individuals are in quarantine, 3 798 - under medical supervision at COVID Hotels and 6 397 - at hospitals.
The Inter-Agency Coordination Council led by the Prime Minister of Georgia actively engages the Parliament of Georgia, chaired by MP Archil Talakvadze and Administration of the President of Georgia.
Press Service of the Government Administration