"This is a matter of life and death" - Georgian doctors demand full compliance with Covid-19 regulations

Catastrophic Covid-19 mortality and infection rates in Georgia

“Today, the situation in Georgia is worse than it has ever been since the beginning of the pandemic”, Ivane Chkhaidze, head of a group of Georgian pediatricians and technical consultants on immunization, said on August 23.

On August 23, the Association of Clinics of Georgia called on the government to ensure effective compliance with the restrictions imposed amid a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus infections and an unprecedentedly high mortality rate.

On August 23, 2,354 new cases of coronavirus were detected in Georgia, of which 942 were registered in Tbilisi, 60 people died have died over the last 24 hours. In the previous two weeks, the number of infected people reached an average of 5,00-6,000 per day, Georgia came 11th in the world in terms of the number of infections per million population.

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The Association of Clinics proposes to urgently take the following measures:

• We urgently need to start immunizing children from the age of 12, without waiting for the recommendation of the World Health Organization. The USA, Great Britain, Israel, and China have already done this.

• We urgently need to tighten control to ensure that the population strictly follows the requirements to wear masks and maintain social distance. To do this, it is necessary to create special monitoring groups of 2-3 people each, which will constantly oversee the situation in crowded places – central streets, markets, shops, shopping centers, and other similar places.

• We should contact the Israeli government with a request to include Georgia in the third stage of clinical trials of the EXO-CD24 drug. It was developed in Tel Aviv and has been shown to be 95% effective in Phase I and II clinical trials. This will save the lives of many coronavirus-infected patients in Georgia who are now in critical condition.

• Ensure the active involvement of compatriot doctors from different countries in the work of the clinical council which will help to effectively and constantly update and optimize patient management protocols.

• Strictly enforce anti-pandemic regulations at airports and land borders.

• It is advisable to hold all large-scale events online until September 10.

“The delta strain of coronavirus has two characteristics – a high spread rate and a more severe course of the disease when infected”, says Ivane Chkhaidze, head of a group of Georgian pediatricians and technical consultants on immunization.

“The rules are simple: keep your distance, wash your hands often, absolutely do not participate in any gatherings of people. The more people get vaccinated now, the easier September will be for us. And August has become disastrous”.

Only 207 of the 106,084 fully vaccinated people in Georgia have contracted the coronavirus – 0.19%, according to the official provax.ge website.

Only 8 of these 207 people needed hospitalization, none of them died. For them, the virus passed asymptomatically or with mild symptoms.

Two field hospitals have already been opened in Tbilisi, each with up to 200 beds and they are already receiving patients, since there are no more beds available in other hospitals.

Deputy Health Minister Tamar Gabunia said the infection rate continues to be very high and there are no signs of stabilization in any region of the country.

Schooling can only begin if no more than 4% of tests come back positive. Over the last few weeks, this figure has stayed at an average of 10-12%.