Georgia gets ready for coronavirus epidemic peak

In mid-November, Georgia expects a significant increase in the number of coronavirus infections; and new hospital beds will be needed, epidemiologists assert. Experts blame authorities for the failure of the healthcare system.

On October 25-26, a total of 1872 new coronavirus infection cases were recorded in Georgia. Since the pandemic start, the country has registered 30,303 cases of COVID-19 infection. During the last 24 hours, 14 patients with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis died in the country; the total number of deaths among those infected has reached 215.

According to forecasts of the National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health, a significant increase in the number of infected patients is expected in the country by mid-November, but, according to Paata Imnadze, the deputy head of the Centre, the public health system should cope with it.

However, Levan Antadze, a former director of the "Medalfa" Clinic in Batumi, now an activist of the United National Movement (UNM), believes that literally in a few days his clinics will have all its beds occupied; and additional hospitals should be equipped.

"The government completely failed the summer months, when we had time to get ready for the second wave of the pandemic. If the distribution of the infected had been properly organized from the very beginning, then today we wouldn't face the situation where people with COVID-19 symptoms for several days can't be hospitalized," Mr Antadze has also noted.

Tamaz Khundzhua, an expert of the Georgia's Centre for Strategic Studies, sticks to the same opinion. "The health care system has already failed. Ambulance crews respond in a few hours; clinics cannot receive patients due to overload. Among other things, we have a very high percentage of infections among the medical staff," Mr Khundzhua told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 27, 2020 at 04:38 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.