How much is Georgia spending on the medical fight against COVID-19?
Georgia has allocated 89,900,000 GEL for the implementation of a health programme for 2020 to manage COVID-19. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Georgia has allocated 89,900,000 GEL (about $28.09m/€26.02m) for the implementation of a health programme for 2020 to manage COVID-19.
The money will be spent in the following ways:
Quarantine spaces, except for the Abastumani Lung Center, will receive not more than 100 GEL per day for each beneficiary. The services provided by the Abastumani Lung Center will be reimbursed under the state programme 'Referral service'.
The quarantine spaces will be equipped with medical staff and primary medical supplies/medicines. Transport fees of the medical staff will be reimbursed.
The gathering, storage and transportation of biological materials will be reimbursed at the cost of not more than 10 GEL.
Testing to determine COVID-19 by PCR, if necessary, will be reimbursed by between 50-150 GEL, depending how samples are collected and submitted.
Testing for COVID-19 by rapid antibody assay will be reimbursed by not more than 20 GEL.
Inpatient treatment with COVID-19 in both confirmed and unconfirmed cases will be reimbursed.
The state will pay 100 GEL per bed to clinics which have up to 80 beds and will pay 120 GEL per bed to clinics with more than 80 beds.
More people have recovered than were infected with COVID-19 in Georgia over the past several days. Georgia has reported six new cases of coronavirus earlier today, bringing the total number of cases to 610. 269 of the 610 patients have recovered, while nine others have died. As of today 330 people remain infected with coronavirus in Georgia, while the number stood at 353 yesterday. Head of the National Disease Control Centre of Georgia Amiran Gamkrelidze says that Georgia is hitting the seventh week since the first reported case of community transmission of the virus on March 23.
Georgia will receive €150 million in macro-financial assistance from the European Council to help the country ‘cope with the economic fallout’ of the COVID-19 pandemic. Georgia is among the ten enlargement and neighbourhood partners of the European Union which will receive the assistance ‘in the form of loans on highly favourable terms’.
Frontline health workers, local civil servants and other risk groups in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and the regions will receive a total of 40,000 protective face shields produced by Georgian company CaucasPack.
Georgia will participate in the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) international clinical trial to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19, and will receive access to four experimental medicines used in the process, Deputy Health Minister of Georgia Tamar Gabunia told Rustavi 2 earlier today.
The rate of coronavirus infection has slowed in Georgia over the past several days, with Georgia reporting just five new cases of coronavirus earlier today, while the figure stood at six yesterday and 11 on May 5. The total number of coronavirus cases is 615 as of May 7. 275 of the 615 patients have recovered, while nine have died. As of today 331 remain infected with COVID-19 in Georgia. Director of Tbilisi Hospital of Infectious Diseases Marina Ezugbaia says that the number of recovered people is coming close to the number of the patients who are being treated in hospitals for coronavirus.
Georgian doctors have used plasmapheresis, a method of treating blood plasma, to cure a COVID-19 patient who was in critical condition.
Georgia has reported eight new cases of coronavirus today, bringing the total number of cases to 623. 288 patients of the 623 people have recovered, while nine others have died. As of today 326 individuals remain infected with COVID-19 in Georgia, while the figure stood at 331 yesterday. The source of infection of all eight new patients has been identified. Four of them were under quarantine, while four others had prior contact with them.
A tenth individual, a 45-year old woman, has died of coronavirus in Georgia today at Gori Military Hospital. The hospital reports that the patient had several underlying 'severe diseases'. The patient was taken from the First University Clinic in Tbilisi to Gori Military Hospital on March 29 with signs of coronavirus.
A total of 32.5 million GEL was spent on quarantine spaces in Georgia from the state budget, reads the report of the measures taken by the government of Georgia against COVID-19. As of May 22 quarantine spaces included 84 hotels with over 6,500 rooms which served 19,002 people in quarantine.
The government spent 200 million GEL on the procurement of hotel and hospital services between March 21 to November 15, says the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) in its new report named ‘COVID-19 related State Procurements’.
Only 13% of the government reserve fund has been spent on the Covid-19 pandemic in Georgia in 2020 and in the six months of 2021, says the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI). The government reserve fund enables the state to cover the costs of unexpected expenses, such as natural disasters, epidemics, ecological and other types of disasters.