Georgian infectious disease specialist: Covid-19 will stay with us for a long time
Tsertsvadze on the vaccination problems in Georgia
The number of coronavirus vaccinations among the population of Georgia has dropped significantly, and therefore it is likely that Covid-19 will stay with us for a long time. This was stated by the clinical director of the Tbilisi Infectious Diseases Hospital Tengiz Tsertsvadze.
According to him, the number of cases has increased in recent days, which can be considered the beginning of the fifth wave.
Tsentzvadze said the state has done everything to get 30,000 – 40,000 vaccinations a day, but the Georgian population is doing nothing to reduce the number of deaths by at least five times.
“All over the world, I look with pain and envy at those who managed to vaccinate more than 2/3 of the population twice. This does not so much affect the reduction in morbidity as it does in the reduction of mortality. Some countries have even vaccinated their population three times. We have reduced the mortality rate in Georgia to 30 (per day), which is still a lot for us. If we had the level of vaccination, which is in all countries of Europe, America, developed countries of Asia, we would have mortality no more than 5-6 per day”, Tsertsvadze said.
Tsertsvadze also stressed that in conditions when the country has two million vaccines that are maximally available – there are vaccination centers, buses, vaccination offers at home, and only 7,000 – 8,000 vaccinations are made per day, this will be a disaster for the country:
“No restrictions can prevent further heavy waves, we are not talking only about the fifth wave”.
According to the director of the infectious diseases hospital, he does not understand why teachers are not vaccinated.
“There are no two opinions that vaccination of parents, school staff and institutions is critical. Many countries have introduced mandatory vaccination of teachers. We tried to do this, but a large number of teachers protested – this is unacceptable, this is an unhealthy approach. We cannot but want to stop the spread of Covid, reduce mortality rate, and on the other hand, do absolutely nothing. I do not understand those teachers who refuse to vaccinate and thereby endanger children. As well as those parents who have children or elderly people at home and who do not care about vaccinations”, Tengiz Tsertsvadze said.
Vaccination against coronavirus in Georgia began on March 15, 2021. Recently, the number of vaccinations has dropped significantly. If at the end of August more than 20,000 people were vaccinated per day, then recently an average of 8,000 doses of vaccine were made per day.
A few days ago, the CDC allowed citizens over 50 to be vaccinated with the third dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
As Deputy Minister of Health Tamar Gabunia explains, the following groups can receive a booster dose at least 6 months after vaccination with the second dose;
● Citizens over 50 years old;
● People of any age with chronic diseases;
● Medical staff;
● Representatives of high-risk professions;
● Staff of closed institutions and people living in them;
The booster dose will also be able to already vaccinated citizens who go on trips abroad.
As of October 12, 1,874,845 doses of the vaccine were used in Georgia. 1,000 785 people were vaccinated with at least 1 dose – 35.2% of the adult population; 874,060 people were fully vaccinated – 30.6% of the adult population.
