On 23 November, the Georgian Clinics Association urged the government to open 100 to 500-bed field hospitals near large clinics which will be equipped with essential medical equipment to fight Covid-19, along with heating and air conditioning systems. The statement also said that to fight Covid-19, military doctors, military nurses and paramedics must be involved in addition to local and international experts. 

The Association claimed that there are too many shortcomings in the organisation of the fight against the pandemic in the current acute phase. Earlier, the association accused the Minister of Health Yekaterina Tikaradze of unprofessionalism and stated that “her irrational initiatives have factually led to the collapse of the medical system during the Covid-19 pandemic.” 

Other recommendations from the association included: 1) limiting the number of passengers in public transport (travel must be allowed only in sitting position, social distance must be observed); 2) allowing up to four people in a 10 square meters area in shopping malls; 3) keeping four meters between tables in restaurants and cafes in open spaces; 4) maintaining distance between chairs in beauty salons, as well as using disposable aprons and sanitising tools after serving each client; and 5) conducting rapid coronavirus tests on patients (the result of these tests are known in 10-15 minutes) in dental clinics before dental procedures. 

Head of Georgia’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Amiran Gamkrelidze said that many more people are infected with the virus in the country than official figures say. He also stated that according to predictions of international health institutions Georgia will hit peak infection in early December. When speaking on Georgia’s potential purchase of the Covid-19 vaccine, Gamkrelidze outlined that the vaccine (from either Oxford, Moderna or Pfizer) would be largely available starting from the spring of 2021. He stressed that Georgia has already ordered vaccines for 700,000 individuals and that it would have to pay 17 million USD for this. 

Meanwhile, the country’s government announced that it would not put a systemic lockdown into effect, but that new restrictions may concern malls and more hours may be added to the curfew. Government officials also said that the opposition rallies following the first round of elections sparked the increased infection rate in the country. All public and private schools would also continue studies remotely until the end of the first semester in Tbilisi and nine other big cities.

Georgia’s Health Minister Ekaterina Tikaradze also said that all planned operations in hospitals would be postponed until March 2021. “We have had a number of cases where an individual who was not infected with Covid-19 went to the clinic for a specific operation and after the operation he/she was confirmed positive with the infection. Therefore, we decided to limit planned surgeries and postpone the delay until 1 March,” she stated. 

In the past 24 hours, Georgia reported 3,128 new infection cases and 39 deaths, bringing the total tally to 111,818 cases and 1,051  deaths.