NCDC Releases Fifth Report on COVID-19 Outbreak in Georgia

The National Center for Disease Control and Public Health of Georgia (NCDC) published late on January 25 its fifth data-rich analysis of COVID-19 spread in Georgia.

The report tracks the progress of the virus, shedding new light on the size and the scope of the outbreak, from the date of the first recorded case until the end of 2020.

Civil.ge offers a quick summary of insights and highlights the key revelations from the report.

Georgia reported its first case of infection on February 26. To date, confirmed cases have reached 254,822, while the death toll stands at 3,096. Total recoveries amount to 244,446 and the number of active cases stands at 7,254.

COVID-19 patient profile

Georgia’s chief public health authority provided a breakdown of data collected from 228,410 patients treated for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

More women than men – 57% and 43%, respectively – were infected by the virus.

Among all confirmed cases, the largest amount (18.7%) was in the 25-34 age group, while the lowest amount (0.9%) was in the 85+ age group.

Case fatality rate remained low, sitting at 1.1% by the end of the year, with 2,528 deaths attributed to COVID-19.

In 98.2% of fatal cases, the disease was severed with underlying pneumonia. NCDC reported that 62.2% of deceased COVID patients had various comorbidities, including cardiovascular diseases (52%), hypertension (20.6%), diabetes (17.3%) as well as oncologic diseases (4.3%) and chronic lung diseases (2.3%).

NCDC said COVID-19 had no bearing on the excess mortality rate in Georgia in the first half of the year, however, by the end of 2020, the number of total deaths, 49,074, had exceeded that of previous years, including the 2015-2019 average, 48,179.

How contagious is the virus?

As of December 31, the rate of cumulative incidence – measuring disease frequency during a given period of time in the population – was at 6,145 infected persons per 100,000 people, a significant increase from the 178.6 during the previous reporting.

Georgia’s Adjara region reported the highest amount of infected persons per 100,000 – 10,355, while Kvemo Kartli recorded the lowest – 2,554. Georgian capital Tbilisi had a cumulative incidence of 7,144 per 100,000.

Effective reproduction number, another key benchmark wielded by epidemiologists, equaled 0.62 at the end of the reporting period.

To put it simply, a single infected individual was likely to transmit COVID-19 to less than one person on average. The number decreased significantly compared to 1.45 recorded at the beginning of October 2020.

Taking stock of COVID-19 testing

From January 30 to December 31, 1,414,578 PCR and 542,817 antigen diagnostic tests were carried out in public health, clinical and commercial laboratories to diagnose COVID-19 infection – with laboratories operating under NCDC, including Lugar Lab, performing 26.3% of the PCR tests.

The highest number of tests – 433,465 – were performed in December, with 13,982 conducted daily on average.

Notably, the test-positivity rate – showing the ratio between who got tested for the virus and who tested positive for it – varied from 9.5% in late March to 1.8% in September and 11.6% by the end of the year.

NCDC estimated that as of December 31, 6% of patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection were healthcare personnel.

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