One Fifth of Georgian Schools Closed Due to Bad Weather

Around 470 public school around Georgia are closed for the next three days, due in part because of the bad weather and also the threat of the H1N1 virus.

The Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia has announced that 267 schools, mostly in the west of Georgia, have been closed because of the heavy snow and 201 others were temporarily shut to “prevent the spread of flu”.

The Education Ministry stated that it has been decided upon recommendation from the National Center for Disease Control to close the 195 schools, 51 public schools in Tbilisi where the absentee rate due to the flu was over 20%, for three days.

There have been three deaths caused by H1N1 so far and one death caused by H3N2 in January, according to the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) which stated that in all these cases the victims went to the hospital too late.

Amiran GamKrelidze, head of the NCDC, stated that as usual in January levels of flu activity increased and the current rates suggest that “nothing out of the ordinary is happening this January.”
“So there is no reason for panic as we are far from the epidemic threshold,” he concluded.