"We Knew Very Little about This Disease in April and May. Today, We Have a Completely Different Situation" - Nikoloz Gamkrelidze

According to the Georgian Healthcare Group, the country is much better prepared and strong in terms of combating the coronavirus. 

As General Director of GHG, Nikoloz Gamkrelidze declared with bm.ge, there is no shortage of tests,  equipment, and inventories anymore. As for the number of beds, Nikoloz Gamkrelidze says that currently 700 beds are vacated for infected patients, but in case of necessity, they have a resource to increase the number of beds.

"The answer to the question, why was a lockdown on 10 cases of coronavirus and why not on 150, in my opinion, is that we knew very little about this disease and its management in April and May. Today, we have a completely different situation in our clinics.

First of all, as of August 31st, 5,400 doctors, nurses, and administrative personnel were trained in 30 different fields. Therefore, the level of training is much higher today.

Second of all, there were some complications in managing the situation due to the lack of personal medical equipment, which is not a problem anymore today.

Also, there was a delay in the supply of medical materials and inventories, which is now resolved.

And for the last, this process includes the number of tests. We talk a lot about the reasons why 1000 tests were done then and 10,000 - now. The answer is, that we could not do more. Today, our lab alone does 1,500 tests a day, while in July we could not do more than 200.

We changed our technologies, which acquired time. In Kutaisi, one of the doctors of our clinic was infected with COVID-19, who had 300 contacts. We tested 300 people in 16 hours and the clinic resumed working the next day. If it happened to us in the spring, the clinic would be paralyzed.", declared Nikoloz Gamkrelidze.