Royal United Services Institute: "An Unusual Suspect: Georgia as a Success Case in Addressing the Coronavirus Challenge"

Georgian government's response to the global coronavirus pandemic has been an exemplary effort in efficient crisis management, an opinion piece published by the Royal United Services Institute.

Contributed by Natia Seskuria, an associate fellow at the British thinktank focusing on defence and security research, the commentary details Georgia's early response and prevention to the outbreak.

It was as early as January 2020, when [Georgia's] Interagency Coordination Council was launched to mitigate and contain the threat of coronavirus [...] At the time, hardly anyone anticipated that the virus which emerged from Wuhan would hit the rest of the world with such intensity" - Natia Seskuria

Decisions such as suspension of flights from worst-affected destinations, preparing quarantine stay for those arriving via select international flights and imposing airport checks on others all made an impact on the situation in the country, argues the article.

More efforts, such as the government's communication of critical messages to the population, suspension of public spaces and events and implementation of advice from professionals are also subject of the piece, which also points to the occupied territories as the most vulnerable zones.

The most vulnerable Georgian areas remain those in the Russian-occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia [...] the Georgian government offered to help Abkhazians and South Ossetians be tested and diagnosed properly at the Lugar Public Health Research Centre in Tbilisi" - Natia Seskuria

Along with these points the author of the opinion piece also notes local challenges laying ahead for the government in its efforts to limit the outbreak in Georgia.

Read the full story here.