The Georgian government announced yesterday that nightclubs would resume working from March 5-6 with 60% of the maximum possible number of guests allowed in.
The Inter-agency Coordination Council made the decision considering the current epidemiological situation, as the number of new Covid-19 cases started to come down following the Omicron peak.
“As commonly known, the peak of the Omicron strain has entered a downward phase. Therefore, it was considered possible to restore the operation of nightclubs by taking into consideration the stabilizing situation in the country,” reads the statement of government administration.
Nightclubs in Georgia were closed in March 2020, following the declaration of a state of emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though the state of emergency has been lifted since and restrictions on public gatherings have been eased, the nightclubs remained closed to date, besides several exceptions for holidays.
Georgian Deputy Health Minister Tamar Gabunia has stated that the daily coronavirus data in Georgia indicates a downward trend, noting that the epidemiological situation is ‘somewhat promising’. Amiran Gamkrelidze, Head of the National Center for Diseases Control and Public Health (NCDC), emphasized the importance of wearing face masks and stated that this rule would stay compulsory for a long time both indoors and outdoors. He also stressed the importance of vaccination, mainly the booster dose to avoid infection, hospitalization, and fatal outcome.
NCDC head noted that there is a viewpoint that coronavirus may turn into an endemic seasonal infection. He also mentioned particular research, according to which, Omicron does not have long-term immunity. According to NCDC Deputy Head, Paata Imnadze, there are many reinfection cases among those who previously contracted the Delta variant and even though Georgia has not recorded any laboratory-confirmed Omicron reinfection cases so far, there is a probability that Omicron-recovered people may get other sub-variant of Omicron.
