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The News in Brief

Friday, April 17
By The Messenger Staff



Government bans vehicle movement until April 21st

Prime Minister’s spokesman Irakli Chikovani announced the government's decision at the briefing to ban vehicle movement, starting April 17th 12:00 p.m until April 2nd. According to him, the restriction does not apply to the cargo transportation and distribution. All grocery shops, pharmacies and delivery services will remain open.

Starting April 17th, wearing masks in closed spaces will be mandatory and the violation will be fined GEL 15 000.

“If each citizen, private sector, government, business, religious organizations, civil society, all of us does not follow rules and state emergency restrictions, it will become a basis of worsening the situation and we will have to impose more restrictions such as state-wide full quarantine. We are strictly demanding you to show high responsibility,” said Chikovani.

According to Irakli Chikovani, public health representatives expect a significant increase in the number of cases in the next 2-3 weeks.

"In total, according to today's data, we have 348 confirmed cases and the stage of active internal outbreak has started in the country. Public health officials expect a significant increase in cases of infection in the next 2-3 weeks. The government has taken timely measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” said Chikovani.

As of April 17th, The number of COVID-19 cases is 348. 74 people have recovered and 3 people have died.



Amiran Gamkrelidze urges citizens to stay home, amid ‘serious internal outbreak’ of COVID-19

The director of the National Center for Disease Control Amiran Gamkrelidze announced that according to epidemiological researches, the internal outbreak has started in Georgia and the situation can become ‘uncontrollable.’

Gamkrelidze once again calls on citizens to stay home, avoid gatherings and don’t go to churches, amid some of the Patriarchate of Georgia representatives calling on citizens to attend the Easter Liturgy on Easter Sunday.

“Epidemiological researches indicate that internal outbreak has already started, which may become uncontrollable if we do not follow all the measures, all the instructions or recommendations given by the Georgian government, the Ministry of Health, the National Center for Disease Control and every sensible person in Georgia. Today the only weapon to fight the infection is self-isolation, there is no vaccine yet and it will not be until about the end of the year. There is no etiotropic drug yet. We, the doctors, have high hopes that this drug will be available, but probably in the second half of the fall. Until then, there is only one weapon left, so that there is no mass outbreak in Georgia just like it is in rest of the world today,” said Gamkrelidze.