Georgian servicemembers manning quarantine checkpoints equipped with US, German-provided hardware
Georgian Defence Forces servicemembers have been called to help ensure quarantine conditions in country's east. Photo via Ministry of Defence of Georgia.
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Georgian Defence Force servicemembers are ensuring quarantine conditions in eastern Georgia's Marneuli and Bolnisi municipalities using equipment provided by partners from the United States and Germany.
A company-sized unit is manning checkpoints leading in an out of the zone that has been on lockdown over the past week after a woman tested positive for the new coronavirus came in contact with over 80 people.
The unit, trained in radioactive, chemical and biological defence, is working to disinfect vehicles entering and exiting the municipalities while also decontaminating "adjacent areas", the Ministry of Defence of Georgia said.
Equipped with hardware and tools provided for free by the US and Germany, service members have also been trained by instructors from the partner countries in dealing with epidemics.
The troops, drawn from a combat engineer battalion, worked with German Federal Defence Forces' school for radioactive, chemical and biological defence and the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency in their preparation.
Beside being prepared to help during pandemics the unit has previously been involved in efforts to contribute combating fires and flooding.
Georgia has reported seven new cases of coronavirus earlier today, with the total number of confirmed cases standing at 98. 78 of the 98 are active cases, as 18 have recovered and two were foreign citizens who have already left the country.4,978 are under quarantine and 266 others in hospitals.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili visited a checkpoint at the entrance of the Marneuli municipality which is under quarantine for the seventh day now. President Zurabishvili thanked police, military servicemen and healthcare professionals for their nonstop fight against the coronavirus.
Drones from the Emergency Management Service are being used by agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia to monitor the Marneuli quarantined zone in country's east.
"These are very difficult times not only for the EU, but for our partner countries as well. We are doing all we can to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on human lives and livelihoods. We are responding both to the immediate needs of the health systems, as well as longer term needs to the most vulnerable groups in society and small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the backbone of the economies in the six countries,” Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said.
Specialists from foreign states are consulting Georgian epidemiologists on their success in containing the coronavirus, announced the head of Tbilisi Infectious Disease Hospital Tengiz Tsertsvadze on Imedi TV’s 'Imedis Kvira'.
An additional police checkpoint will be set up in the village of Kvemo Bolnisi in Bolnisi Municipality which is under quarantine for the tenth day now. The Georgian Interior Ministry announced today that this aims to ensure the enforcement of “significantly tough measures” imposed during the state of emergency.
Servicemembers of the Georgian Defence Forces have screened over 950,000 citizens at checkpoints across the country in an effort to monitor health conditions of those travelling on roads amid the new coronavirus outbreak, the Ministry of Defence of Georgia reported on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Defence of Georgia will obtain NATO-standard hardware to replace some of the current equipment used by the Georgian Defence Forces, with the replacement necessitated by challenges demonstrated during COVID-19 lockdown efforts by the troops.