Foreign states consulting with Georgian epidemiologists on coronavirus containment

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'. 

Frankly speaking, there is no better model than ours in the world as of today. They are following our example. The World Health Organization [said this, too]. They contact us every day from the leading countries – Germany, France, Spain – and consult with us”, Tsertsvadze said.

He discussed exactly what measures have brought Georgia this success, and singled out the following ones: 

• Prolong the retention phase before the first internal transmission registered in Georgia
• Immediate quarantine in Marneuli, Bolnisi and Zugdidi
• High civic responsibility of Georgian society
• Georgia chooses the right model – stay at home and address special medical units (and not any clinic), which are 24 in total, only when the symptoms occur. 

Tsertsvadze said that what makes Georgia also a successful country in this fight is that there have been no cases of death with COVID-19.

The death toll is zero and with this data Georgia is ahead of many countries in the world and almost all the countries in Europe...When the first case of internal transmission was revealed in Georgia we expected that the epidemic would be spread very fast, as it happened in other countries. One week after the first internal transmission we have no significant, dramatic increase of infected people. Of course there will be an increase of infected people in Georgia and we will also have cases of death, but as we have managed to prolong the retention phase we will also be able to be slow by three, four steps compared to other European countries", said Tsertsvadze.

There are 100 people already infected with coronavirus in Georgia. 

So far 18 people have recovered from coronavirus. The first case of infection was registered on February 26 in the country and on March 21 a state of emergency announced. 

During this time Georgia shut down air traffic starting March 21; closed schools, universities, shops; set up mandatory quarantine zones at border crossings; placed citizens arriving home under quarantine; suspended all forms of intercity transports, including rail.

Earlier today, the government of Georgia announced a nationwide curfew.