Georgia extends coronavirus state of emergency

Georgia on Tuesday extended a nationwide state of emergency to curb the coronavirus epidemic until May 22.

Last month, Georgia declared a state of emergency and imposed a lockdown in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.

The pro-Western country of some 3.7 million also introduced a night curfew and a ban on gatherings of more than three people.

"I am issuing a decree to extend the state of emergency across the whole of Georgia until May 22," President Salome Zurabishvili said in a televised address to the nation on Tuesday.

"Thanks to the measures we have taken, we have managed to control the spread of the disease over the past month, but the challenges we are facing don't allow us to lift the restrictions," Zurabishvili said.

The Black Sea nation has so far reported 408 COVID-19 cases and four deaths, one of the lowest rates in Europe.

But Zurabishvili warned that the "next two or three weeks might see a dramatic spike in new cases."

Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze has admitted that Georgia's hospitals do not have enough intensive care physicians to treat thousands of critically ill patients.

© 2020 AFP