Georgia is one of the countries which early on implemented public health measures. Such a statement made Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, while answering the question of Kurieri.

“Georgia is one of the countries which early on implemented public health measures. Georgia started taking action early on. As early as March 2, it implemented physical distancing measure. So, it started to take measures that we know are working very early - finding, isolating, testing and caring for people with COVID and tracing and quarantining the contacts. And Georgia is taking a step further, namely by working on economy recovery plan and putting health as a political priority, as well as working on the second wave.

Globally, with 9 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 400,000 deaths reported to WHO, the pandemic continues to accelerate. Over 2.5 million cases have been reported from Europe. While the European Region is reporting a decreasing proportion of global cases than earlier in the year, the Region continues to report close to 20,000 new cases and over 700 new deaths daily. Last week, Europe saw an increase in weekly cases for the first time in months.

For weeks I have spoken about the risk of resurgence as countries adjust measures. In several countries across Europe, this risk has now become a reality – 30 countries have seen increases in new cumulative cases over the past two weeks. In 11 of these countries, accelerated transmission has led to very significant resurgence that if left unchecked will push health systems to the brink once again in Europe.

Countries such as Poland, Germany, Spain and Israel have responded quickly to dangerous outbreaks of COVID-19 associated with schools, coal mines, and food production settings that have occurred over the past several weeks. Where new clusters of cases appeared, these have been controlled through rapid and targeted interventions. This is very good news! Bravo to the authorities!

At the same time, we need to get smarter in using the evidence and the information we have from our COVID-19 surveillance systems to improve the only way we have to minimise transmission: find, isolate, test and care for every case. Trace and quarantine every contact.

Here, digital technology can play a leading role, not least to support contact tracing. Austria, Georgia and North Macedonia are among the 27 countries that have released national solutions for digital contact tracing in Europe”, - concluded Hans Henri P. Kluge.