Vaccination Activity Decreases, Health Experts Say Mandatory Vaccination Not Necessary
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Friday, October 8
Deputy Minister of Health of Georgia Tamar Gabunia has recently said that she does not see the reason to make vaccination mandatory in the country. However, she stated that some requirements may be imposed.
“There can be different types of conditions, especially in a business environment. For example, we can require people to be vaccinated, or PCR tested for Covid-19 so that we know they are not infected. There can also be an official statement saying that they have recovered from Covid-19 in recent months,” said Gabunia.
She also said that if any of the requirements are adopted, there should be freedom of choice for citizens of the country. The representatives of the Georgian health sector have long talked about vaccination in the country. For example, last month, the Georgian Health Minister said that there is no need for vaccination in the country to become mandatory.
Gabunia also talked about the vaccination of minors. She said that as of now, only children with chronic diseases between 12 to 15 years are receiving vaccines in the country.
Representatives of the healthcare sector in Georgia have repeatedly talked about vaccinating children over 12. Amiran Gamkrelidze, director of the National Center for Disease Control, says that if children are not vaccinated, the pandemic won't end.
Gamkrelidze also noted that after a steady improvement in the epidemiological situation over the past month, there is a possibility of it worsening soon.
For the past three days, Georgia has reported over 2,000 cases daily. In addition, the number of people receiving vaccines has also decreased drastically. Over the past week, only about 8,000 jabs have been administered daily.
Vaccination started on March 15. To date, 1,844,965 vaccines have been administered. 995,019 people, or 35.9% of the adult population, have been vaccinated with at least one dose. 29.8% of the adult population, 849,946 people, are fully vaccinated. There are four vaccines available in the country at the moment, including Pfizer, Sinopharm, Sinovac, and AstraZeneca.
There have also been talks about additional vaccines to become available in the country in the following months. The one-jab vaccine by Johnson & Johnson is expected to arrive in Georgia over the next few months.
