US Assistance Strengthens Georgia’s Response to COVID-19
By The Messenger Staff
Friday, May 15
On May 14th, 2020, in Tbilisi at the Emergency Management Service, USAID/Georgia Mission Director Peter Wiebler joined Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Ioseb Chelidze and Head of Georgia’s Emergency Situations Management Service Temur Mghebrishvili to hand over field hospital tents provided to Georgia by the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The field hospital tents will enhance the preparedness and response capabilities of the Emergency Management Service (EMS) of Georgia and support the safety of communities across Georgia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“USAID thanks to the generosity of the American people has been able to support the Government of Georgia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic here in the country. Here with our partners at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, EMS we handed over 2 tents that USAID and our partners procured to help EMS respond to cope and ultimately control the spread of the virus in Georgia. It’s obviously important for Georgia’s immediate response to keep its citizens healthy and safe, but also it’s critical to get the country back on a path to economic growth and stability that USAID and US Government have been supporting Georgia so long to continue,” USAID/Georgia Mission Director Peter Wiebler told The Messenger on May 14th.
In response to a request from the EMS of Georgia, the USAID/Zrda Activity, through its partner the Association Rural Development for Future Georgia (RDFG), rapidly sourced and procured hospital field tents with a total area of more than 45 m? and heated technical field tents with a total area of more than 20 m?. The tents will be deployed to quarantine zones across Georgia and after the crisis, will be handed over to the CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) Incidents Response Division (Rapid response team) of the Fire and Rescue Forces Department at the EMS of Georgia. Provision of the tents is part of a larger effort by the U.S. Government to support Georgia’s immediate COVID-19 response and help build its emergency preparedness capacity through upgraded equipment and enhanced training.
“On behalf of the Government of Georgia I would like to take this opportunity and once again thank the U.S. Government for its continuous support to Georgia in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak. Handing over these field hospital tents is one more signal of the strength of the Georgian-American partnership. We hope this assistance will further enhance preparedness and response capabilities of the EMS as well as safety of communities across the country”, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Ioseb Chelidze said on Thursday.
To date, the US Government, through USAID and other agencies, has deployed a range of resources to contain and prevent the spread of COVID-19 globally. In Georgia, the U.S. Government has responded rapidly to the pandemic by partnering with Georgia’s Government, civil society, and private sector to prevent the spread of disease, support essential public services, and help prepare for the economic recovery from the pandemic.
