Rallies in Georgia continue: restaurant and business owners demand the COVID-19 restrictions be lifted

On January 30, in a continued civil unrest, owners of restaurants and other businesses joined a protest in front of an administrative building of the government of Georgia to demand the immediate lifting of the existing COVID-19 induced regulations. The protesters claimed that as a result of the existing restrictions, restaurants, hotels and winter resorts will not be able to recover from the economic crisis caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Failure to allow the above mentioned sectors to open up will result in the businesses dying out eventually, the protesters claimed.

Similar incentive was expressed by the head of the Association of Georgian Restaurateurs, Shota Burjanadze, who said that protest aims at showing the Georgian officials that the failure to support the businesses that are suffering the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will hamper an entire Georgian economy. Burjanadze added that more than 250,000 people are employed in the aforementioned sectors, and all of them are faced with unemployment as a result of the existing restrictions.

Almost 200 restaurants stopped functioning (for takeaway services) for 24 hours in defiance. Previously, a similar protest was held on January 24, when the opposition politicians, civilians and business owners came to gather to demand the lifting of restrictions. Leader of the opposition Girchi party, Zurab Japaridze, claimed that the failure to lift the restrictions will result in the country “sinking into a further dump”.

“We are a rather poor country already, and any restrictions [that we introduce] would only lead us to more poverty” – Japaridze added. Similarly, member of the “Lelo for Georgia” party, Grigol Gogelia, said that the government failed to adequately respond to the crisis and too, called for a “wise” removal of the restrictions. Head of the National Disease control, Amiran Gamkrelidze, said that the two main weapons against the pandemic are the restrictions and vaccines are the country’s two main weapons against the virus. Georgia is removing some restrictions on February 1, however, it is not yet clear when the restaurants and catering services will be able to return to the normal way of providing their services. Nevertheless, starting February 1, restaurants in the Adjara region will be allowed to start functioning in open spaces.