Georgia to maintain coronavirus restrictions until February 1

Georgia has decided to maintain the coronavirus restrictions until February 1, which means that municipal transport in big cities will continue to be suspended; shopping malls will not open until the end of the month.

[The Interagency Coordination Council] has discussed today and decided to maintain the regime that exists today which is point restrictions until February 1. Our task is to use these two-three weeks left before February 1 to have very active communication with businesses and prepare for a safer opening starting February 1 related to the trade and transport sector,” said Economy Minister Natia Turnava.

Turnava said that in order to remove the restrictions, there must be a decline in daily coronavirus case statistics.

The government of Georgia imposed additional restrictions on November 26 to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country. 

An effective curfew is in force between the hours of 21:00 and 05:00 throughout the country.

In big cities of Georgia including Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Gori, Poti, Zugdidi and Telavi, as well as the ski resorts Bakuriani, Gudauri, Goderdzi and Mestia face the following restrictions:

• Municipal transport will not work
• Shopping facilities (except for food, animal feed, pharmacies, veterinary pharmacies, household chemicals and hygiene shops and press booths) will operate only remotely
• Open and closed markets will not work. Only agrarian markets will continue to function
• Schools, vocational schools and higher education institutions (except medical education programs) will be fully switched to online studies
• Private and public kindergartens will not work

3-15 January has been declared winter holidays around the country which means no public or private facilities work, except banks and strategic facilities. 

In Bakuriani, Gudauri, Goderdzi and Mestia resorts, ski trails and ski lifts will suspend operations starting November 28 through January 31.

Moreover, hotels can only operate at ski resorts for quarantine purposes.

The opening of the Georgian ski resorts for the upcoming winter season depends on the climatic conditions and the epidemiological situation, announced the Mountain Resorts Development Company on November 17.