Ambulance personnel to undergo mandatory PCR testing for COVID-19 every 72 hours

Ambulance personnel will undergo mandatory PCR testing for COVID-19 every 72 hours, as they have the closest contact with COVID-19 patients.

The testing interval for ambulance personnel was formerly every two weeks.

The Health Ministry is trying to identify the largest targets groups for PCR testing. Today the ministry has decided to reduce the interval of testing for paramedics who are in the closest contact with COVID-19 patients during the detection and diagnosis period. This will help [the Ministry of Health] protect medical staff from infection, as well as to prevent the spread of the virus”, said Tikaradze.

Head of the National Centre for Disease Control Amiran Gamkrelidze said earlier today that teachers and kindergarten personnel will also have to undergo PCR testing on a selective basis starting in the coming days. 

Gamkrelidze noted that if a school student, a teacher or a kindergartener tests positive for COVID-19, staff and children from specific groups will have to be self-isolated, and schools will not have to switch to remote classes.

It is mandatory for schools and kindergartens to be disinfected after recording new cases. If several new cases of the virus appear in any kindergarten, staff should decide on their own whether the whole kindergarten stops working or not. So-called random PCR testing will also apply to kindergarten teachers”, said Gamkrelidze.

Kindergartens have opened today throughout Georgia except for in the Adjara region and Ozurgeti municipality where kindergartens are still closed amid a severe epidemiological situation.