'Green' Covid passports no longer mandatory in Georgia

Green passport canceled in Georgia

The government of Georgia is canceling the green passport system, Chief of Operations Giorgi Ghibradze has announced at the meeting of the Interagency Coordination Council earlier today.

According Ghibradze, the spread of coronavirus in the country has reached such a scale that the green passport mechanism is no longer effective, and many other countries in the world have also eased some Covid induced regulations amid the uncontrolled spread of the Omicron strain.

When asked by journalists, to name one country where the green passport was abolished and where the vaccination rate was as low as in Georgia, Ghibradze could not answer.

“Vaccine rates may not be directly linked to this logic”, he said.

According to Ghirbradze, if a person needs a green passport to travel abroad, they can get it, but it will not be mandatory inside the country.

It should also be noted that from February 1, the so-called systematic testing of the asymptomatic population in Georgia will be stopped (with the exception of medical staff). For example, if until now teachers were tested once every two weeks, from February 1 they will no longer be tested at all. This decision was made to ease the large load which falls on the laboratories due to the spread of the Omicron strain.

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The so-called Green passport has been valid in Georgia from December 1. It has been given to individuals who have been vaccinated with two doses of any vaccine, have already recovered from Covid, have performed PCR test in the last 72 hours or have taken a rapid antigen test in the last 24 hours.

A total of 90% of the Covid-19 cases in Georgia have been caused by the Omicron strain, while the remaining 10% have been identified as Delta.

● The average age of infection with Omicron is 33.7 years.

● The proportion of children infected with the common infection has not increased. The share of children under 19 is in the range of 18-19%.

● Both sub-branches of Omicron are circulating in Georgia – BA1 and BA2. As the international literature says, BA2 has the ability to spread even faster, though it is also much less severe, most likely because of BA1.

● Amiran Gamkrelidze says that the spread of Omicron will increase even more in the next two weeks in the country.

● According to Gamkrelidze, Omicron is so widespread that testing is not necessary. In case of minimal symptoms, the citizen should stay at home and consider that he / she has it.