Government lifts several restrictions
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, February 5
The Georgian government has announced the lifting of several coronavirus-related restrictions due to the decrease in daily infections. Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia stressed in a statement yesterday that any restrictions planned to be eased from next week will be maintained over the weekend.
Gakharia said the positive rate among daily tested individuals had dropped below 4%, giving the government an opportunity to ease the restrictions earlier than announced.
According to the government administration, as of February 3, the daily positive rate is 3.51%, for the last 14 days - 4.41%, and for 7 days - 3.79%. The overall number of people recovered increased to 251,748. A total of 3,240 people have died from the virus in Georgia since the pandemic spread.
Starting February 8th, full-scale municipal transport will be launched in Georgia, which means that metro, bus and minibuses will start operating in all cities across the country, including Tbilisi, Rustavi and Kutaisi. After the introduction of municipal transport and schools, the government will monitor the dynamics and then make a decision on the development of intercity transport. From upcoming Monday, all types of markets and fairs will be fully operational as well.
According to the gov’t decision, schools all over the country will resume studies in the classroom from February 15. Kindergartens remain closed. As for food establishments, restaurants will be allowed to receive guests in open spaces starting February 15 as well. Note that 200 restaurants were planning to reopen despite restrictions on February 6th in protest. According to Shota Burjanadze, the head of the Restaurant Association, even though this decision by the Coordination Council is not what they demanded, it is still a relief for the business and step forward for some operators.
It was also announced that in the event of a deliberate violation of coronavirus rules, organizations will no longer be able to participate in state support activities. Burjanadze replied that this is nonsense, since the law doesn’t state that those who protest against a particular decision, will not receive subsidy.
PM also spoke of an upcoming change in sanction - in case of violating the rule of wearing a mask for a second time, the fee will double. Note that this violation results in administrative liability and a fine of GEL20 in accordance with Article 42 (11) of the Criminal Code. He said that in addition to easing restrictions, it is important to think about tightening the rules.
According to Gakharia, subsidizing 80% of the bank loan interest rate for 6 months, will apply not only to restaurants, but to the sports industry, sports facilities (up to 100 operators) and private kindergartens too (up to 50 small ones), as there was a serious demand from them. He informed that there were about 2000 applications, although for technical reasons only 420 met the requirements and the gov’t will make a decision to alleviate these technical requirements in order for the 2,000 restaurants to be able to benefit. Applications will start on February 8th and last until March 5th and anyone who has not used this program yet, or could not use it due to some shortcomings, will be able to use it. According to the Economy Minister, the subsidy program has been extended and will apply to loans taken from both banks and microfinance organizations.
“These are the organizations and these are the businesses that have also suffered as a result of the pandemic,”Gakharia said.
At the gov’t session, the PM also presented the new head of the government administration, Kakha Kemoklidze, who, as Gakharia underlined, has been working in the public service for years and ‘has great experience’.
“Recently, Kakha became the head of the National Security Council. He has participated in important events for the country, such as the Geneva talks, IPRM meetings, and he has enough knowledge to guide the effective work of the Georgian government administration,” the PM noted.
