Georgia Offers Assistance to COVID-hit Armenia
Georgia will render help to the neighboring republic in its battle against COVID-19 pandemic. The Georgian Health Ministry stated that Ekaterine Tikaradze and Arsen Torosyan, the healthcare ministers of Georgia and Armenia, respectively, discussed the details of assistance during a telephone conversation on June 11.
According to the Georgian Health Ministry, Georgia will assist Armenia with respiratory equipment and medical staff, at Armenia’s request.
The two ministers also discussed the possibility of testing smears collected from Armenian patients in makeshift labs set up near the Georgian-Armenian border. Minister Tikaradze said her Armenian colleague “liked the idea,” but the two sides have so far only agreed on arranging video conference, at which Armenian and Georgian specialists should discuss further details of such assistance.
Prior to that, Amiran Gamkrelidze, the Head of the National Center for Disease Control of Georgia, expressed Tbilisi’s readiness to help Yerevan. NCDC Head said Georgia can conduct 500 to 1,000 COVID-19 tests a day for Armenia or provide a certain number of test-kits to a neighboring country.
Earlier in the morning Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia said that Georgian medical staff would help the neighboring country in its fight against the novel coronavirus.
Armenia is the worst COVID-hit country in the South Caucasus region. As of June 11 morning, Armenia has confirmed a total of 14, 669 cases, of which 5,466 have recovered and 245 have died. In addition, 82 patients, having tested positive for COVID-19, died of other diseases, Armenian Health Ministry reported.
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