Health Minister: We are dealing with inefficient management
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Tuesday, November 17
As of November 16, there were 16,785 active Covid-19 infected cases, of which 5,658 are treated in hospitals and 7,812 at home. 50,256 people are recorded to be in self-isolation.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 3,175 to 82,835. According to the information published on a special page stopcov.ge, 65,291 of them have recovered and this figure has increased by 3,230. Covid-19 has killed 733 people in Georgia.
Amiran Gamkrelidze, head of the National Center for Disease Control, claims that there are enough beds mobilized in the country at the moment and there is no need to arrange field hospitals. According to him, currently, up to 5,000 citizens are treated in hospitals, which is 30% of the total number of infected people, and this figure should be reduced to 15% under good management.
According to Gamkrelidze, additional 3,000 beds can be mobilized and a total of 8,500 beds will be available in hospitals.
After the meeting of the Interagency Coordination Council, Gamkrelidze said the current restrictions will be tightened even more, yet clarified that a full lockdown would not be considered.
According to the Minister of Health Ekaterine Tikaradze, the clinics should transfer relatively light patients to coveted hotels and should use breathing equipment for severe patients with oxygen beds. She noted that this issue was addressed at a meeting with the heads of the clinics, which took place twice in the government administration, with the involvement of the Prime Minister last week.
“Here we are dealing with inefficient management, on which we have consulted, agreed on these issues and clinics will improve management, thus mobilizing respirators and oxygen beds for the patients who need it,” Tikaradze said, adding that to date, 1,040 respirators and up to 3,400 oxygen beds have been mobilized and additional respirators have been purchased and will be distributed to clinics as soon as they arrive.
She clarified that 868 beds are mobilized in the country in the direction of Covid management and this number is increasing by 100-200 beds daily. According to Tikaradze, up to 800 patients are leaving hospitals daily, while the admission and hospitalization rate is high.
Given such a situation, the new platform was created for citizens enabling them to get information about the identity of the family doctor and the primary health care institution through the new informational portal.
According to the Ministry of Health, by referring to the personal number on the portal, the citizen can find out which primary health care institution is registered and also receive information about the identity of the family doctor who will monitor the patient's health condition.
