Georgian bishop urges public to receive Covid-19 vaccine
Bishop Saba says that the clergy should not be engaged in an anti-vaccine campaign. Photo: IPN.
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Georgian Bishop Saba (Intskirveli), who heads an eparchy in North America, has called on the public to vaccinate because 'the major contribution [one can make] to the fight against Covid-19 is to receive the vaccine.'
He said in his recent live video that vaccination is not a theological issue and that the clergy ‘should not try to demonise’ the process.
The encouragement by clerics not to receive the vaccine may lead to human deaths,” said the bishop.
Immunologist-allergist Bidzina Kulumbegov, who is taking part in UNICEF’s awareness raising campaign on coronavirus vaccination around the country, has called on the Georgian patriarchate earlier this week to take actions to ‘stop anti-doctor campaigns’ by a group of anti-vaxxer clerics.
The group of clerics compared Kulumbegov and other doctors to Nazi officer and doctor Josef Mengele–who carried out deadly experiments on prisoners during WW2–during a Facebook live.
The patriarchate says that they will not encourage people to receive the coronavirus vaccine. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
The patriarchate, which enjoys the support of 80 per cent of the country’s population, said on August 11 that clerics' positive or negative attitude to the vaccination process ‘should not be a trigger for others to make decisions.’
The statement also said that ‘vaccination must not be mandatory’ and that everyone should observe coronavirus guidelines.
Georgia has reported 74 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours which is the record high figure since the country confirmed its first case of Covid-19 at the end of February 2020.
6,723 individuals have died from the virus in Georgia so far.
The country has reported 4,901 new cases of 46,595 tests and 2,586 recoveries in the past 24 hours.
61,262 individuals remain infected with Covid-19 in Georgia.
It has not been laboratory confirmed that an individual in Georgia has contracted Covid-19 three times, Head of Infectious Diseases and AIDS Centre Tengiz Tsertsvadze stated earlier today, following earlier reports to the effect.
Immunologist-allergist Bidzina Kulumbegov, who is taking part in UNICEF’s awareness raising campaign on coronavirus vaccination around the country, has called on the Georgian patriarchate to take actions to ‘stop anti-doctor campaigns’ by a group of anti-vaxxer clerics.
Georgian Patriarch Ilia II has ordered Orthodox churches to comply with regulations such as usage of disposable cups, distance, disinfection and wearing the facemasks as coronavirus spikes in the country at a record level.
Georgia has reported 74 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours which is a record high figure since the country confirmed its first case of Covid-19 at the end of February 2020. 6,723 individuals have died from the virus in Georgia so far. The country has reported 4,901 new cases of 46,595 tests and 2,586 recoveries in the past 24 hours. Most of the new cases were reported in the capital Tbilisi, Adjara and Imereti regions.
Georgia has reported 3,803 new cases of coronavirus, 3,332 recoveries and 48 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Georgia has reported 2,354 new cases of coronavirus, 5,200 recoveries and 60 deaths in the past 24 hours. In total, 22,875 tests have been conducted around the country of which 12,208 tests were rapid tests, while the remaining 10,667 were PCR tests. Since February 26, 2020 Georgia has had 517,098 cases of coronavirus, 453,488 recoveries and 6,831 deaths.
Deputy Director of the National Centre for Disease Control of Georgia (NCDC) Paata Imnadze has stated today that due to the current epidemiological situation, a lockdown is not being considered, however tightening the coronavirus regulations will be discussed.
Senior Georgian priest Ilia (Irakli) Chigladze in the eparchy of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has been dismissed from the priesthood following his criticism of the Georgian Patriarchate, the press service of the Patriarchate reported earlier today.