Who is to blame for the ongoing Covid-19 crisis in Abkhazia?

Why the authorities are to blame for the increase in coronavirus cases in Abkhazia

Amid the sharp increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in Abkhazia and shortage of hospital beds, doctors make collective appeals to the authorities and the population, accusing both of being irresponsible. Abkhaz journalist Marianna Kotova explains why authorities are to blame for the new wave of the pandemic and why she refuses to participate in the public fundraising.

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The operational headquarters for the fight against coronavirus has been disbanded, says the chief epidemiologist of Abkhazia Lyudmila Skorik.

There are no more places in the Gudauta covid hospital, according to the Ministry of Health.

Russian tourists are welcome to Abkhazia without a vaccination certificate or a negative PCR test, the Ministry of Tourism reports.

As of July 25, 136 cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Abkhazia ( with a total population of about 250,000 people) and four people died. About 400 people are currently hospitalized in critical condition. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 21,061 cases of infection have been identified in Abkhazia, 289 people have died and 16,763 have recovered.

The pages of charitable foundations on social media are posting day and night, looking for expensive drugs for COVID-19, and urging local population to volunteer in the infectious diseases hospitals as well as donate money to help doctors.

I do not take any of these messages seriously. And I am guided by my own principles in the fight against the pandemic:

• I do not use public transport.

• I enter shops and closed premises wearing a mask, and I only visit wild beaches.

• I try to avoid tourists and I will get vaccinated only when crowds of people stop gathering in a cramped room.

I will certainly not help government or Covid hospitals as with labor or money.

And here is why:

1. Because I have less money than those who channel money from the budget for city holidays in the midst of a pandemic.
2. I have less money than those who organize weddings in the midst of the pandemic.
3. When I hear how much money was spent from the budget on the purchase of drugs for covid, I start counting my money spent on drugs for covid, and how much more there is to pay the loan taken to buy drugs for covid.
4. When I am asked to help a state institution with money, I remember how MPs are trying to pay for my lunch and that of my friends. Their salary is less than ours. But it’s me, not them, who counts how many times a month I can dine outside my home without the risk of bankruptcy.
5. I will not transfer even 1 ruble to the account of the Covid hospital, because I earned each of them with my own labor. And I’m not going to share anything with the state except taxes.

We are being called all-around to be conscientious, wear masks, wash our hands, keep our distance. Our health is in our hands. Doctors constantly repeat: take care of yourself, we no longer have the strength to save you.

But if the state always relied on human consciousness, there would be no prisons, correctional institutions, or drug treatment clinics in this world.

The state is the institution that regulates this Brownian movement from people who do not believe in laws, viruses and conscience.

The pandemic, like a magnifying glass, shows us all human weaknesses, and the weakness of the state, which, as it turned out, cannot cope with a “simple” person who decided to get married, despite knowing that they tested positive for COVID-19, thus sending their beloved ones to the hospital bed.

After one such event, 70 people got infected. But this information does not make it into the official chronicle. Weddings and concerts continue to thunder, and people continue to get sick, and announcements of urgent purchases of expensive medicines fly through the network.

As well as “funerals” and the names of not yet elderly people who could have lived if the neighbors would choose not to hold their wedding or funeral.

Now someone will come to pay respect to them and the cycle of Covid will continue Abkhazia.

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