Government considers easing COVID-19 restrictions for New Year, Georgia starts 12-day mandatory quarantine for UK arrivals

By Khatia Bzhalava

Tuesday, December 22

At the time of writing, there are 22 628 active coronavirus cases, out of which, 6 627 individuals are treated at hospitals, 2 903 in Tbilisi, 747 - in Adjara, and 1 347 - in Imereti.

The new rule on 12-day mandatory quarantine applies to Georgian citizens, business visitors, and citizens/residents of the 18 European countries who traveled in the UK in the past two weeks.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Internal Affairs revealed 950 facts of breaching regulations imposed against the spread of COVID-19 across the country. Police fined 73 physical persons for violating the restriction of movement from 9 pm to 5 am. 877 persons were fined for not wearing face masks. According to recent statistics, the epidemiological situation in the country has started to stabilize. Regardless, the government and health officials insistently call on the citizens to demonstrate high public responsibility and adhere to the imposed restrictions.

The Inter-Agency Coordination Council, led by the PM Giorgi Gakharia, is actively working with experts, specialists, epidemiologists, and business owners to ease the imposed COVID restrictions from December 24. Berdia Sichinava, Deputy Head of the Task Force operating at the Inter-Agency Coordination Council, stressed that COVID restrictions imposed on November 28 directly influenced decreasing the daily reported cases. As Sitchinava stated, it is each citizen's responsibility to maintain the achieved results, adding that the decision on easing the restrictions will be made with utmost caution and will be announced in the nearest future.

Considering the new variant of the coronavirus identified in the United Kingdom, the coordination council has decided that everyone in Georgia with a UK travel history in the last 14 days will undergo 12-day mandatory quarantine.

“There are no direct flights with the UK at the moment,” stated Sichinava after the council meeting.

According to the statistics from yesterday, there were 824 new cases, 4 227 recoveries, and the death of 46 individuals reported in Georgia.