PM Garibashvili rules out new lockdown

By Khatia Bzhalava

Tuesday, July 27

Garibashvili stated that the state economy grew by 12 percent in the first six months of 2021, allowing the state to increase the budget by one billion Lari.

Vaccination with the first dose of Pfizer started yesterday in Georgia among people aged sixteen and over. There are 37 medical facilities engaged in the immunization process.

Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili stated at the Executive Government Meeting yesterday that the government does not plan to re-impose restrictions as the country “will no longer withstand new lock-down”. The prime minister claimed that the government would manage the epidemiological situation instead of introducing restrictions and lockdowns.

According to Garibashvili, as a result of ‘the careless street rallies’, the number of coronavirus cases has doubled in the last two weeks.

“These events have practically led to the doubling of the number of infected. I wish to once again urge the population to be vigilant and treat every action and public gathering with a degree of responsibility,” noted the PM.

The PM underscored that currently there are 1.5 million doses of Chinese manufactured vaccines and half a million doses of Pfizer vaccine in the country. According to him, Georgia will also obtain an additional one million doses of Pfizer vaccine directly from the manufacturer in the following month. Garibashvili urged the public to get vaccinated and underscored the importance of relying on scientists, rather than ‘gossips and rumours’ related to vaccines.

The Head of Government of Georgia also discussed the positive trends in the economy that have been observed lately. He stressed that the growth indicator has reached 12% in the first six months of the year, which enabled the state to increase the budget with GEL one billion and not to take new loans.

“We opened up everything. The economy has been growing super-fast for several months now and we have unprecedented growth in the world. In April our economy grew by 45%, in May - by 25% and we expect factual data for June to manifest 18% of growth,” said the PM.

On Monday, Georgia reported 1,264 new cases of coronavirus, 1,665 recoveries, and 11 deaths. There have been 404,023 cases of coronavirus since February 26, 2020, with 374,753 recoveries and 5,714 deaths. Currently, 23,530 individuals remain infected with Covid-19.