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been – until now – slow to respond by tightening restrictions.
Even in the Baltic states, which until recently had managed to keep the virus under control, new restrictions are being announced. The worst-affected Baltic country is Lithuania, which declared a three-week nationwide lockdown on November 4.
In Southeast Europe, the virus is spreading most rapidly in Slovenia, which reported 12,030 new cases in the last week, or 6,267 per million. Slovenia already has a partial lockdown in place and the government has unveiled new measures to support coronacrisis-struck SMEs.
The situation is only slightly better in Croatia and Montenegro, which reported 3,718 and 3,328 cases per million respectively during the week. Montenegro in particular may be heading for a new surge in cases, as thousands of people largely ignored social distancing rules at mass events to mourn Metropolitan Amfilohije, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro.
Nemanja Radojevic, deputy head of the Clinical Centre of Montenegro (CCM), told public broadcaster RTCG that the tiny country could be heading for a “catastrophic” situation and urged the authorities to start opening field hospitals.
Tighter restrictions have also been announced in Kosovo, while in Bulgaria the informal organisers of the mass protests that have taken place daily since July called for a halt so as not to risk spreading the virus at demonstrations and putting more pressure on the already overstretched health service. Hoteliers in Bulgaria have offered to accommodate coronavirus patients as hospitals are already approaching capacity.
Further east, Armenia remains another hotspot for coronavirus, with 14,417 new cases during the week, as does neighbouring Georgia with 12,296.
9.1.9 Agriculture sector news
Georgia to partially replace Russia wheat with Kazakh grains
Georgia is set to partially replace Russian wheat with Kazakh grain due to the Russian wheat export tax doubling per tonne from €25 to €50 as of March 1, executive director of the Georgian Flour Producers Association Levan Silagava announced.
Silagava said that Georgia constantly has at least two months of wheat supply and will not face a wheat shortage. Last year Georgia purchased 56,248 tonnes of wheat from Kazakhstan.
Georgia was predicted to harvest 150,000 tonnes of wheat and 80,000 tonnes of barley. The country harvests around 80-100,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of
58 GEORGIA Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com