Restaurants in Georgia to defiantly reopen on February 6 despite restrictions

Restaurants in Georgia that are still closed due to COVID-19 regulations plan to reopen on Saturday, February 6 in defiance of the prolonged restrictions.

This information was confirmed by the chairman of the Restaurant Association, Shota Burjanadze who announced that approximately 200 restaurants have already decided to resume operations on February 6, and the number is likely to increase.

The head of the Gastronomy Association Levan Kokiashvili commented on the decision in a Facebook post:

“Unfortunately, the expectations of the hospitality industry have not been met. Instead of finding a reasonable solution, government officials postponed the meeting with the representatives of the industry. Since no other solution was offered despite all our efforts to find one, we decided to reopen the restaurants on Saturday, February 6.

We fully understand all aspects of our decision, and it was not easy for us to arrive at it”, Kokiashvili wrote.

Restaurants in Georgia have been closed since November 28 due to tight COVID-19 induced restrictions imposed by Georgian government.

Some of the restrictions were lifted on February 1, but as per the government’s decision, restaurants and food facilities should continue to only offer delivery services.

Restaurant owners held a rally last week, where they demanded a full reopening of the food facilities and announced that they refused to deliver food to customers for 24 hours in protest.

Rallies in front of the government administration building demanding the lifting of various restrictions have been ongoing for two weeks.