Paata Imnadze: We want to do 20,000 Covid-19 tests every day during January
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Friday, January 8
According to Paata Imnadze, Deputy Director of the Center for Disease Control and Public Health, in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, it is important to do 20,000 tests daily in January.
“We should be better prepared for lifting the restrictions, for which it is very important to take more steps and reveal the cases that are asymptomatic,” said Imnadze.
He said that, as of today, even those who do not have any symptoms can go and get tested for coronavirus and that the country can do 20,000-21,000 tests a day without any problems. According to Imnadze, over the last few months, there were days when this number of tests were taken and it is perfectly possible to do so again.
As of today, there are restrictions in the country to limit mobility. As a result of the restrictions, there is no public transportation and most of the shops and shopping centers are closed.
As health experts are saying, the restrictions in the country had a positive influence on the number of daily reported coronavirus cases. On the other hand, health experts are also claiming that lifting the restrictions during the Holiday season might have a negative impact on the current situation.
As they are saying, we will be able to assess the impact of lifted restrictions from December 24 to January 2 in the coming weeks.
According to the Government plan, starting from January 16, restrictions will be lifted on transportation and malls. However, on the weekends, shopping malls and public transportation will still be closed.
As the Interagency Council announced yesterday, there were a total of 15,492 tests performed in the past 24 hours. Out of these tests, 1,612 were positive. The number of daily reported cases have decreased significantly, especially compared to November, when there were more than 5,000 cases reported every day.
Since the beginning of the pandemic in last February, there were a total of 235,491 positive cases of Coronavirus identified.
Out of these, 2694 people have died because of Covid-19 complications. In the last 24 hours, 278 people have passed away. 419 people have recovered from coronavirus in the past 24 hours. In total, 223,695 people have recovered.
