Natia Turnava explains why lockdown is not planned in Georgia

Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava explains why lockdown is not planned in Georgia and says that closing down the economy means lost income.

As Turnava told reporters, due to the possibility of mass vaccination, there will be no lockdown. According to her, there are no plans to close down any specific sector.

"We do not plan a lockdown because it is very important for people to work, families to have income, the economy to develop. The difference compared to the previous period is that there is a sufficient number of vaccines. It is quite enough for the majority of the population to get vaccinated on time. This is the way to overcome the current situation and thus fight coronavirus, not locking down. Lockdown is an unacceptable form.

As for the tightening of measures, we still make recommendations to wear fasemasks, to follow the recommendations. The facilities follow these rules, where they do not follow - there is a control. In addition, there won't be any decision to have sectoral, targeted restrictions or closure of any sector. We will do our best to overcome this trend with mass vaccination.

We are not going to have a lockdown. In the case of a lockdown, any closed down field is a lost job, a lost revenue. This practice existed globally and Georgia was doing it at the beginning of the pandemic, there was less experience and there were no vaccines. We finished last year with -6%, it was painful but inevitable. Today, since we can have mass vaccinations, we will not follow this path anymore", - Turnava said.

As for tourism, Turnava says the tourism sector is "quite safe."

"The tourism sector is one of the first in which we started vaccination, even when the vaccines were not as available as they are today, therefore, the tourist season is quite safe with us", - Turnava said.