9 Patients Test Negative for Coronavirus, Discharged from Tbilisi Infections Hospital

Tengiz Tsertsvadze, director-general of the Tbilisi Infections Hospital, says that currently, there is only one patient under observation in the clinic, whose diagnosis is not known yet.

As Tsertsvadze told reporters, nine patients have already been discharged from the clinic, as none of them had a new coronavirus.

“The 9 patients who have been placed in our clinic were discharged. All of them have undergone all kinds of examinations and tested negative for coronavirus. In addition, the test answers received from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, showed that two Georgian citizens with flu symptoms who recently returned from China have tested negative for the new virus.

"Currently, there is only one patient under observation in the clinic - a young woman, who was hospitalized a few hours ago. She has recently been in Shanghai and has a low temperature - 37.1. There are reports around the world that most cases of coronavirus start with low temperatures, so we have increased attention. She also has a cough, however, she does not have pneumonia. 

"We are still examining all patients who were in China and have a temperature. The patient who is currently being examined in our clinic is a citizen of Georgia. Tomorrow morning they will be screened for the coronavirus and tomorrow, at noon, we will already have answers. Most likely, according to clinical observations, this woman has no coronavirus. However, they all need to be tested where possible. At present, testing for coronavirus is available only in 10 countries of the world and it is very good that our country is among them, thanks to the Lugar Laboratory,” Tsertsvadze said.

It is now possible to determine the diagnosis of the new type of coronavirus, known by the scientists as simply 2019_nCoV, in Tbilisi, Georgia in the laboratory of Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research.

“We got additional reagents from the Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology. We lacked them to determine the final laboratory diagnosis of this disease,” said the Director-General of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC).

By Ana Dumbadze 

Related Story: Coronavirus Testing Now Available in Georgia