Georgian doctor calls on public to test for Covid as daily cases may be up to 20,000

Georgian doctor Bidzina Kulumbegov, who was earlier involved in the Government’s efforts against coronavirus, called on the public on Tuesday to “intensively test” for the virus, as daily infections could  range between 6,000-20,000 in Georgia. 

In comments on Today’s data of the National Centre for Disease Control, which said the country confirmed 13,737 cases of coronavirus between August 21 and August 28 out of the 76,704 tests, Kulumbegov said that a 17 percent daily positivity rate was “quite alarming” over the past seven days. 

“If we look at the calculations of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) [an independent global health research center at the University of Washington], we may have 6,000 -20,000 daily cases”, Kulumbegov said. 

Since February 26, 2020, when the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in Georgia, 1,749,419 cases of infection have been recorded, with the virus killing 16,892 individuals. 

Georgia lifted all coronavirus restrictions  earlier this year, with the state authorities claiming that the new strains of the virus needed no supervision in hospitals.