Georgia Gets Global Appreciation for COVID-19 Response

Many have expressed their appreciation of Georgia’s response to the current coronavirus outbreak, praising the government for stepping back and letting Georgian health experts take control. 

COVID-19 arrived in Georgia a month ago and the number of registered cases had reached only 43 by March 20, with no deaths.

A Georgian public health expert based in Prague, Nino Giguashvili, said “the immediate countermeasures to contain the outbreak of COVID-19 have been very timely and adequate. Georgia was among the first nations in Europe to undertake effective measures.”

Neighboring Armenia had been the Caucasus’s leader in keeping the illness relatively mitigated until a sudden rise in the number of cases this week (nearly 136 as of March 20). The complication of the situation was largely attributed to one Armenian citizen who hid the infection while she attended an engagement party. In Georgia too, one coronavirus-infected person attended a funeral; that could mean that a wave of local transmissions could be imminent.

If this holds true, Georgia will have to devise extreme measures to continue mitigating the disease effectively.

Thus far, Georgia has issued a full ban on international travel and ordered the closure of all shops, except for pharmacies, food markets, banks and gas stations. Restricting free movement and staying home remains a request, not a requirement yet.