TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Georgia reports first confirmed coronavirus case
Change Size
Illustration of coronavirus test (Shutterstock/SamaraHeisz5)
Georgia on Wednesday announced its first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in the South Caucasus region.
"A Georgian national has tested positive for the novel coronavirus," Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze told a news conference, adding that the infected man has been placed in isolation in a Tbilisi hospital.
"Three different tests of the 50-year-old man's nasopharyngeal smear gave positive results, but he is doing well, he is clinically healthy," head of Georgia's national center for disease control, Amiran Gamkrelidze told journalists.
The man had arrived in Georgia from Iran via Azerbaijan, Gamkrelidze said.
Tikaradze said Georgia would introduce a two-week ban on Iranian nationals entering Georgia, but flatly dismissed fears of a coronavirus epidemic in the ex-Soviet country "at this point".
On Sunday, Georgia's neighbor Armenia closed its border with Iran and suspended flights as fears over an outbreak of coronavirus in Iran sent neighboring countries scrambling to contain the outbreak.
