Amiran Gamkrelidze: Vaccination rate has been decreasing for the last 4 days, which is very bad - if we do not increase the mask-wearing and daily vaccination rates, the epidemic situation may worsen again

According to Amiran Gamkrelidze, head of the National Center for Disease Control, the maks-wearing and vaccination rates have recently decreased.

As he told Interpressnews, if the daily number of vaccinations is not increased and the population does not follow the regulations, it may lead to a worsening of the epidemic situation.

"All the indicators that characterize the epidemic situation, I mean the new cases of virus infection per 100 thousand inhabitants, the positive indicator of the reproduction index for the last 7-14 days, have already shown a decreasing trend, including in terms of the most severe indicator - mortality. All these indicators, although at a slow pace, are stabilizing, but unfortunately for the last 4 days, the daily vaccination rate has been declining, which is very bad because the stabilization dynamics were somewhat dependent on the relatively high vaccination rate we had in August and the first half of September. Understandably, we wanted even more, but on average we had 23-24 thousand daily vaccinations. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the decline has appeared for the last 4 days, and also, when we look at the prognosis on the booking portal, unfortunately, the dynamics of the decline is also seen here, which is not good", - Gamkrelidze said.

According to him, the rate of wearing a facemask has also decreased in recent days, as the figure has come down to 43% last week.

Gamkrelidze says that before winter approaches, it is essential that most of the population be vaccinated. Amiran Gamkrelidze calls on the population for timely vaccination.