BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 5
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Until today, the Georgian government has done everything possible to maintain the number of direct international flights, but now the priority is to protect citizens from the coronavirus, said Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava, Trend reports citing Georgian media.
According to Turnava, the government is considering suspension of the flights to the countries with high risk of the spread of coronavirus.
“In this situation, the global aviation industry limited flights and other activities. This also affected those flights that are operated to Georgia. Furthermore, by the decision of the government and the emergency headquarters created by the Prime Minister, we decided to stop direct flights to China and Iran. As for other countries that may be potentially at risk, this issue is the subject of discussion, "said Turnava.
The Minister emphasized that the decision was not easy, since before that everything had been done to increase direct international flights in Georgia, but now the priorities have changed.
Currently, four cases of coronavirus infection have been recorded in Georgia. All infected are Georgian citizens who have recently arrived from abroad. In addition, 170 people are quarantined with suspected coronavirus.
The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019.
Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019. The symptoms include cough, headache, fatigue, fever, aching and difficulty breathing. It is primarily spread through airborne contact or contact with contaminated objects.
Chinese health authorities say that the majority of the people who have died were either elderly or had underlying health problems.
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