Health official says domestic monkeypox cases not recorded in past 21 days, urges public not to panic

Amiran Gamkrelidze, the Head of the Georgian National Centre for Disease Control, on Sunday urged the public not to panic due to the newly reported international cases of the monkeypox, noting no domestic cases have been recorded over the past 21 days.

The Georgian Public Broadcaster cited Gamkrelidze as saying countries were divided into four groups by the World Health Organisation for their situation with the virus, adding Georgia was in the first group with its result.

Gamkrelidze also said monkeypox was not as widespread as other respiratory diseases,  but stressed the importance of “readiness” of the country for the virus, and added relevant information should be provided to the public, healthcare providers and high-risk individuals.

He also explained that the public health emergency of international concern, as declared by the WHO on Saturday, was not considered a pandemic, while noting increasing figures in 75 countries had made it necessary to “strengthen supervision and diagnostics”.