In-person studies postponed until October 1 in Tbilisi and large cities of Georgia
In-person studies for school pupils and university students have been postponed until October 1 in Georgian capital city of Tbilisi and other large cities of the country such as Gori, Rustavi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi and Poti. Photo: Gov't of Georgia.
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Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia announced today that 'we are not going to and are not ready to impose strict economic restrictions' following the rise in coronavirus cases at a press conference earlier today.
Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze and Georgian health officials also announced several new recommendations following the record high new coronavirus cases registered in the country in the past few days.
[We] are primarily interested in moving the achievements attained in the field of clinical management of the virus into the economic dimension. The economy must recover quickly. For this we need to make the virus management effective. These are not difficult requirements, wearing a mask is not a difficult requirement, but it seems that we will have to impose certain restrictions and I think that our citizens will properly perceive these restrictions", Gakharia said.
PM Gakharia, Health Minister and Georgian health officials announced several new recommendations following the record high new coronavirus cases registered in the country in the past few days. Photo: Gov't of Georgia.
Gakharia noted that despite the increased number of cases, there is no reason to panic, since the government, epidemiologists and clinical groups are in full control of the situation.
We have used the last five-six months to make sure that all the systems that are fully involved in epidemic management are in a completely different condition today. For example, when a state of emergency was declared in March, epidemiologists in Georgia were able to perform about 200 PCR tests a day, and today, an average of 8,000 PCR tests are performed in the country without any problems. In the near future, this number will increase to 10,000, and if necessary, this number will increase even more. The hospital system already has all the prevention mechanisms - 112, primary health care ring, then quarantine, detection, hospital - this system already works for hours without any delays", Gakharia said.
Gakharia instructed the Ministry of Health to prepare 3,000 beds in the coming days to ensure that if the number of infected patients increases, they are effectively treated.
In-person studies postponed until October 1 in Tbilisi and large cities
In-person studies for school pupils and university students have been postponed until October 1 in Georgian capital city of Tbilisi and other large cities of the country such as Gori, Rustavi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi and Poti. However, the studies will begin everywhere on September 15 as was announced earlier but in the above-mentioned cities, this will take place remotely.
Out of 1,500 schools inspected by the Labor Inspection Department, 81 don’t meet COVID-19 safety standards developed by the Georgian Health Ministry. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Gakharia said that the government was ready for this and had prepared a hybrid form of learning process in advance.
The essence of this hybrid model is that there are different numbers of children in the classes and because of this they were distributed in a way so as for part of them to study remotely and part - in the classes. We should also take into account that this applies to all the extracurricular activities where children go to and which are not held in the open air”, Gakharia said.
Places in Georgia with high number of coronavirus cases
There are several new clusters recently created in Georgia as a result of large festive and wedding events, said Head of the Georgian National Centre for Disease Control Amiran Gamkrelidze.
These are the following clusters in Georgia:
- Guria cluster - which Gamkrelidze said that "we stopped it in time and there is no big spread of the virus there'
- Kutaisi school cluster - where eight more infected people were detected today to 21 already detected ones
- Tsageri cluster - where 450 PCR tests were taken and the results will be announced later today
- Zugdidi cluster - where employees of Enguri dam tested positive for the coronavirus
There are several new clusters recently created in Georgia as a result of large festive and wedding events. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Gamkrelidze said that 1,200 tests have been taken in four municipalities and the results will be announced in the coming days.
Finally, Gakharia recommended everyone call 112 if they develop coronavirus symptoms and the Ministry of Health will assist each citizen.