Georgia Cancels Quarantine For Citizens Returning From Abroad - Gov't

The head of the Georgian government administration, Natia Mezvrishvili, said on Wednesday that citizens returning from abroad would no longer be required to quarantine for eight days into state-run facilities, as long as they present a negative COVID-19 test result

TBILISI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2020) The head of the Georgian government administration, Natia Mezvrishvili, said on Wednesday that citizens returning from abroad would no longer be required to quarantine for eight days into state-run facilities, as long as they present a negative COVID-19 test result.

Until now, all Georgian returnees have had to undergo an 8-day quarantine in special facilities upon entry. Earlier this month, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia said that the government might lift the quarantine requirement.

"From now on, any citizen of Georgia who enters the homeland and has a PCR [polymerase chain reaction] test result with them will not undergo a mandatory quarantine and will self-isolate instead," Mezvrishvili said.

According to the Georgian government's COVID-19 monitoring website, 4,462 citizens are in specialized quarantine facilities at the moment.

The mandatory quarantine was canceled despite the resurgence of COVID-19 � the daily infection rate increased from several dozens in late August to an average of 900-1,200 cases in mid-October. A single-day record of 1,351 cases was confirmed on Wednesday.

Overall, Georgia registered over 21,000 cases, including 172 deaths and more than 9,000 recoveries.