Head of Government Administration shares decisions made at inter-agency coordination council
By Khatia Bzhalava
Thursday, October 22
At the briefing held after the Inter-Agency Coordination Council, the Head of the Government Administration Natia Mezvrishvili shared the decisions made at the council meeting, which is now held every day as the epidemiological situation has escalated. She talked about the criteria of assigning COVID-infected individuals into hospitals and homes as well as the new rule of self-isolation for Georgian citizens who cross the border.
Mezvrishvili stated that the government of Georgia is doing its best to use hospitals only for infected patients with an acute health condition and chronic diseases, thus, according to the new model, treatment of COVID infected individuals continues at homes and COVID-hotels. She clarified that when an infected individual is not hospitalized, doctors still observe their medical treatment at home or hotels.
Mezvrishvili dismissed the information that had been spread recently about the insufficiency of available hospital beds and explained that there is no reason to be concerned as the information is not true.
21 703 people were in isolation as of yesterday and as Mezvrishvili noted, general physicians are in touch with them. She explained that there might be individual cases when a medical consultation was delayed for 1-2 hours, however, ‘such occurrences are not systematic.’
Mezvrishvili announced that a new rule was coming into force, according to which, Georgian citizens will be sent to self-isolation instead of quarantine if they present negative PCR test results at the border when they enter the country. The new rule applies to Georgian citizens arriving from any country in the world.
The Head of the Government Administration also noted that 12 000 tests are taken daily, which is 60 times more compared to the beginning of the year. According to her, only people who have revealed symptoms can be tested. Tests are not performed on asymptomatic individuals.
Georgia reported 1351 new cases and 337 recoveries on October 21st. Total coronavirus cases amounted to 21 208 with 9 003 recoveries and 172 deaths.
