Movement in Big Cities to Be Restricted from 22:00 to 5:00, Violators to Be Fined GEL 2000

In light of the country's epidemiological situation and rapidly growing infection numbers, the Interagency Coordination Council has decided to impose additional localized restrictions.
During today's videoconference led by Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, the council agreed to start enforcing additional localized restrictions on November 9.

In particular, on the Interagency Coordination Council's decision:

• Starting November 9, both pedestrian and transport traffic will be prohibited after 10 PM in large cities: Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi, Rustavi, Zugdidi, Gori, and Poti.
- This restriction does not apply to:
- International freight transport
- In coordination with the Operations Command, to persons and transport whose movement is essential for fulfilling their duties, including representatives medical, pharmaceutical, and strategically important sites and media outlets, and delivery service couriers.

Vice-Prime Minister Maia Tskitishvili stated that a natural person who violates the restriction on movement from November 9 will be fined 2 thousand GEL.

"We already have sanctions defined by the law, the law that regulates quarantine measures. I would like to point out first of all that this is not a curfew, it is a restriction on movement. The sanction which will apply to this restriction is already defined: GEL 2,000,” said Tskitishvili.

• All organizations must close at 10 PM, except medical, pharmaceutical, and strategically important sites.
• Both municipal and private kindergartens will be temporarily closed in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi, Rustavi, Zugdidi, Gori, and Poti.
• Special measures will be taken in the cities above to reduce passenger numbers on municipal transport. Transport traffic will not be restricted during the daytime.

As the meeting pointed out, enforcing additional localized restrictions comes due to the epidemiological situation and compliance with enforced rules and epidemiologists' recommendations, including facemask use and social distancing-during political processes, among others.

The council discussed measures designed to help prevent the hospital sector from overloading. To that end, only severe cases must be hospitalized. Treatment of milder cases at home, with active consultations from family physicians, is the best way to prevent the healthcare system from being overloaded and yet to ensure that persons urgently requiring medical services are not left behind, the council noted. Patients who cannot self-isolate will be settled in COVID hotels where, in line with the Prime Minister's instructions, therapy components have been stepped up and continuous medical supervision is provided.

In addition, retrained sophomore medical students and volunteer doctors engage in the management of coronavirus infection cases. With the Health Ministry's coordination, a pool of volunteers is being put together to include both retrained students and retired doctors, who are subsequently assigned across the clinical sector, also being actively engaged in the management of infection cases, through the online clinics operating under the aegis of the Health Ministry. Additionally, doctors specializing in a variety of areas and having necessary skills are mobilized to participate in patient management.

The council also discussed the worsening pandemic-related global state of affairs. Over the past 24 hours, the number new confirmed cases exceeded 620,000, making the global count of cases close to 50 million.

In light of Georgia's epidemiological situation, the Interagency Coordination Council discussed a package of localized restrictions designed to increase the effectiveness of flattening the curve.

So far, Georgia has had a total of 54,852 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 39,773 recoveries and 441 fatalities.

Presently, 3,015 persons are quarantined, 2,599 are at COVID hotels, and 4,670 are hospitalized under medical supervision.

The Parliament of Georgia led by Speaker Archil Talakvadze, and the President's Administration, are involved in the work of the Interagency Coordination Council under the Prime Minister.

By Ana Dumbadze