Georgian Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze resigns

Georgian Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze has resigned and joined the ruling Georgian Dream party’s political council. Tikaradze announced her resignation at the special briefing held at the office of the ruling party. She thanked all the people working in the field of healthcare for their cooperation.

Tikaradze spoke about the activities carried out during her ministry. She said that being a Minister of Health was a big responsibility for her.

“After three years of intensive work and consultations with the prime minister and the [ruling] party chair, I find it right to further strengthen the Georgian health and social protection services from the Georgian Dream party political council.

We believe that the projects that were launched and implemented thus conclude a certain stage of development. We are moving to another stage”, Ekaterine Tikaradze said.

It is still unknown what Tikaradze will do after leaving the post.

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Ekaterine Tikaradze was appointed Minister of Health in September 2019. She replaced David Sergeenko in this post. Her ministry coincided with a outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, and that was the minister’s main challenge.

Tikaradze recently had a disagreement with the Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili regarding the so-called green passports. The Minister believed that the permanent green status should not be granted to those who recovered from coronavirus.

The Minister also spoke about the need to use a green passports in public transport. She said if a new strain is detected, controls and recommendations will be significantly tightened and the Coordination Council would consider introducing green passes in the public transport, since, according to Tikaradze, otherwise green passports “will remain a fictitious regulation”.