Who was Georgia’s youngest coronavirus victim – a 30-year-old woman from Javakheti

On October 21, 15 people died of coronavirus in Georgia, setting a record number of deaths in one day since the beginning of the pandemic.

Among the deceased was a 30-year-old woman from Ninotsminda in Samtskhe-Javakheti, a region in the south of Georgia. She became the youngest coronavirus victim in Georgia.

JAMnews tried to find out how she got ill and why doctors were unable to save her.

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The 30-year-old woman lived in the village of Dilifi, Ninotsminda district. On August 18 she was transferred from Ninotsminda to a Tbilisi hospital with bilateral pneumonia and acute respiratory failure. The woman died on October 21.

JAMnews contacted her family who asked not to mention her name. The deceased woman taught English in a public school in Dilifi. She left two young kids behind.

The family is not well-off, the husband had left for Russia for seasonal work. He couldn’t come to his wife’s funeral.

Before she was sent to the hospital, the woman had a high temperature for several days.

Family members as well as villagers still don’t believe she had coronavirus. In the village, JAMnews was told that she had excessive weight and “probably her heart couldn’t cope”.

In general, people in the village know very little about the coronavirus. Here people are not afraid of the virus and don’t observe the rules.

However after the death of the teacher, the school was closed.

The body of the young woman was taken to the cemetery as soon as it was brought from Tbilisi, and buried the same day. The body was in a closed casket, the relatives couldn’t say goodbye to her. Only family members attended the funeral.

As JAMnews was told in the Center of Public Health of Ninotsminda, the funeral was conducted observing the protocol received from Tbilisi.

There are a total of seven people in self-isolation in Dilifi – those who had direct contact with the deceased woman.

19 coronavirus cases were registered in Ninotsminda district. Among them, there are several public school teachers, due to which three schools in Ninotsminda were closed.

The situation in the village of Dilifi is calm. Many don’t believe that the reason for the woman’s death was coronavirus. Among them is the father of the deceased.

“I don’t know the details, but if she had coronavirus, why did none of her family members got ill?”, said the neighbor of the deceased to JAMnews.