Covid-19 rates declines in Georgia, first doses of vaccine due to arrive in February

By Khatia Bzhalava

Thursday, February 4

“When 60-70 percent of the population is vaccinated and the so-called public immunity is formed, we might say that we are back to the normal rhythm of life,” said the head of NCDC Amiran Gamkrelidze.

The vaccination against COVID-19 will start in mid-February in Georgia.

Yesterday, Georgia reported 688 new cases of coronavirus, 788 recoveries, and 13 deaths. According to the NCDC head Amiran Gamkrelidze, Covid-19 positivity rate, which was 25-30% in November and 7.4% in January, went down to 4.9% yesterday across the country and has averaged 3.8% for the past week.

At the briefing yesterday, Gamkrelidze touched upon the easing of regulations. As he noted, if all restrictions are lifted at once, in a month virus spread level will be about the same as in October-November-December. “Everyone wants to ease the restrictions, yet, easing of restrictions should be carried out gradually and on the basis of monitoring of the epidemic,” he stated. However, if the current positive tendencies are maintained, the government considers starting gradual easing of restrictions earlier than planned. This will initially apply to educational institutions and public transport.

According to the head of NCDC, laboratory studies, including genetic research, are underway in connection with one possible re-infection case. As for the new strain of the virus, so far, out of three possible cases, there has been only one genetically confirmed case of the new strain in Georgia.

Medical institutions state they are actively preparing for vaccination. The first dozes of the Pfizer vaccine will be delivered in the country by the end of February. According to the National Plan of Immunization, initially, vaccines will be available for 14 000 medical workers and by the end of the year, about 60% of the population will be vaccinated. Currently, there are almost 40 brigades mobilized in 10 hospitals and 5 additional back-up clinics, where vaccination will be administered. As Tengiz Tsertsvadze, director-general of the Center for Infectious Diseases and AIDS stated that medical staff is so well-trained in conduction of the process and management of all possible complications that if vaccinated started today, there would be no shortcomings in the process.

After Pfizer, Georgia will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine as well. According to the Minister of Health Ekaterine Tikaradze, the ministry is actively engaged in the continuous process of communicating to receive additional doses of vaccines.

According to the decision made by the Inter-Agency Coordination Council, the Republic of Turkey - was added to the list of countries admitted to Georgia through air traffic under the new regulations. This means that apart from the citizens and residents of the European Union (EU), Israel, Switzerland, Norway, United States of America (USA), Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, and Bahrain, from now on, even unvaccinated Turkish citizens and residents will not be required to undergo mandatory quarantine, as long as they present a negative result of a valid PCR test taken within the last 72 hours.