Part of Existing Covid Regulations to be Lifted in March, Interagency Coordination Council Says
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
According to the decision of the Interagency Coordination Council, most of the existing restrictions will be lifted from March. As for the obligation to wear a mask in the open, it was said that the existing restrictions remain in force. The subject will continue to be discussed and as soon as the epidemiological situation shows a tendency to improve, the obligation will be revised.
The following obligations will be canceled or eased from March:
10 people will be allowed to sit at the table in restaurants and 15 people in the open. So far 6 people were allowed. The limit on the maximum number of guests is lifted.
Large-scale celebrations and social gatherings like weddings will be allowed again. In this case, it will be possible for 10 people to sit at one table indoors, and for 15 people to sit in an open space.
The so-called Covid hotels will no longer operate.
The obligation of thermal screening and logging, as well as barriers will be abolished.
Hotels buffets will be allowed to serve guests.
From March 4, clubs will resume operating, using only 60% of the space.
Conferences and seminars will be allowed from March 15 without any restrictions.
“The council is still working and from March 1, this mitigation may expand and become even more diverse, but obviously, everything will depend on the epidemiological situation.”
Deputy Minister of Health Tamar Gabunia spoke about the lifting of restrictions on the briefing and other measures related to pandemic management.
“The epidemic picture is different against the background of Omicron, and therefore, a different approach is needed to control it. As for the vaccination program, the main stimulus for vaccination has so far been the mechanism of financial incentives; Green pass regulations played a role, but they had a limited effect.”
According to Gabunia, it is important to share the experience of other countries and follow the processes that are recommended in terms of management.
“Most importantly - facemasks, social distancing and a number of recommendations for basic hygiene remain in place. It is very important to follow them,” Gabunia said, reiterating that booster doses are important and that the ministry is working to replenish vaccine doses. All the measures that ensure the pace of vaccination will be intensified.
Amiran Gamkrelidze, director of the National Center for Disease Control, said it can be boldly said that the peak of Omicron has passed.
“The number of cases is slowly decreasing, but is higher than the allowed ‘limit’. It is also declining, but we have more than the permissible threshold for daily mortality per million inhabitants.” According to Gamkrelidze, in order to keep the declining trend, we must strengthen boosterization - in such case, by June the forecast is that we will come down to 1000 cases daily with new cases. He also informed that covid-related mortality cases significantly reduced in January-February.
According to the information published on Stopcov.ge, 12,101 new cases of infection were detected in the last 24 hours, 14,764 people recovered and 45 people died. As for the positive rate, as of February 21, the daily positive rate is 25.48%, for the last 14 days - 30.65% and for 7 days - 28.55%.
