First Deputy Minister of Health Tamar Gabunia explains why the "green passport" system is abolished and whether she agrees with this decision.
“Omicron has high reinfection. Green Passport does not protect or guarantee that a person will be safe when entering a business environment where its requirement has been mandatory. Also, in the case of vaccination, there is some protection, but this is not full protection against infection. Protection is more for hospitalizations and complications. This is also important in the case of Omicron.
So, daily PCR-testing is the most powerful factor, which is impossible. Due to these technical decisions, it has been considered today to remove the mandatory requirement for a 'green passport', but this does not mean that the restrictions have been lifted," Tamar Gabunia said.
Yesterday, Interagency Coordination Council took decision to abolish mandatory Green Pass requirement in light of the rapid transmission of the omicron variant. In addition, despite the growing infection rates, the situation was fully manageable, and pressure on the hospital sector was not growing significantly, with most patients treated at home and their health monitored by family physicians whose numbers had grown even further over the past few days.
