Amiran Gamkrelidze: The face mask wearing rate has increased to 70% - let's follow the rules, we do not want any additional restrictions
No one denies that the epidemic situation has been gradually deteriorating over the past month - with daily cases being within the range of 1,200, so we should try to maintain this figure during April-May, - Amiran Gamkrelidze, head of the National Center for Disease Control, told InterPressNews.
According to him, it is necessary to intensify the vaccination process in the country, because without vaccination the epidemic can not end.
"We had a serious surge once, the second time there has not been such surge so far. Daily cases range within 1200. There were 966 new cases today, but it always depends on the number of tests conducted. As you know, the number of tests decreases over the weekend. There are 23,888 tests conducted in the past 24 hours, so we have 966 new cases. Somehow we should try to maintain this figure during April-May. One of the promising factors is that the rate of wearing a face mask has increased in the country - it has risen to 70%, which is a very good sign. In addition, mobility is slightly reduced and I think it all affects the fact that so far we do not have a second strong surge of new cases. If we try and follow the recommendations and keep them within this range, of course, it will be somewhat reassuring", - Gamkrelidze said.
According to him, it is important that today, for the first time during the last week, the number of recoveries exceeds the number of newly infected people.
"I want to appeal once again to the population, especially in the week before Easter and the week after Easter, that we all understand that the situation is getting worse all over the world, the number of daily infections in the world exceeds 800 thousand and of course it affects all countries. Therefore, I appeal to the population in the weeks before and after Easter - the recommendations that we often talk about should be followed, and it is desirable to go to vaccination centers. 1533 vaccinations were carried out in the last 24 hours, but it is still mostly 72-73% in Tbilisi, 9% goes for Adjara and Imereti, in other regions, unfortunately, there is no activity. We are actively going to the regions, we have been to Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli, etc. The local government is trying its best to support and intensify the vaccination process so that we can cover the population more widely with vaccinations, because without it, the epidemic can not end. A total of 37,590 vaccinations were carried out in the country, of which 21,589 were vaccinated with AstraZeneca and the rest with Pfizer. The number of fully vaccinated people, meaning with the second dose of Pfizer, amounts to 2,254. I emphasize that we need at least 3,000 vaccines every day in April-May and this figure should increase further", - said Gamkrelidze.
As Gamkrelidze explained, due to the epidemiological situation, all preventive measures will be discussed at the meeting of the Interagency Coordination Council tomorrow.
"We do not want any additional restrictions, let's follow the rules, recommendations and show discipline - we do not want any additional restrictions", - said Gamkrelidze.
