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Therefore, all risks must be balanced. On the other hand, it is our choice to adapt, to fight the pandemic so as not to restrict business. It is very important for our citizens and visitors," Turanva said.
In the meantime, daily new coronavirus cases in Georgia exceeded 1,100 for a third day in a row. And as many as 15 COVID-19 patients died in the small country of four million on October 20. Daily infection totals were in the dozens until early September, while the Georgian death rate never exceeded more than one patient per day from the outset of the pandemic.
On October 20, 1,186 new cases were detected in Georgia, bringing the country’s total number of infections to date to 19,857.
Most new cases (425) were detected in Tbilisi, followed by Imereti (372). Georgia will hold parliamentary elections on October 31.
Gakharia said that “irresponsible politicians and experts” were spreading false virus information, generating panic.
“Recently some irresponsible politicians and experts have unfortunately been spreading false information to circulate an ungrounded panic among the public, which is absolutely unacceptable,” he said.
“Our joint fight has been successful in recent months because it was a consolidated, united battle on several front lines – be it curtailing COVID-19 or rescuing the economy. We continue to fight this battle together with our citizens of course,” Gakharia said.
9.1.4 ​Tourism sector news
Georgia loses $700mn in tourism revenues in Aug-Sep alone
Foreign visitors in Georgia spent only $15.6mn in September, some 95% less than in the same month last year, according to a report released by the National Bank of Georgia (NBG).
Across August and September, Georgia's tourism revenue shrunk by $700mn compared to the same period of last year.
The decline in tourism revenues in September amounted to $303mn, on top of the $397mn drop in August. The central bank attempted to maintain balance in the foreign exchange market by selling FX from reserves it built up to be robust, but it is hard to offset such a deep drop in inflows.
In 2019, Georgia received a record number of visits from international travellers, some 9.36mn, of which 5mn visits were tourists. The tourists spent more than $3bn in the country. Georgia expects to receive $1.5bn in external financing this year, part of which will be used by the central bank to try to maintain a satisfactory nominal exchange rate.
A total of 50,499 international visitors crossed into Georgia in September.
The number was 94% down year on year.
A very small number of this year's international visitors in September were classified as tourists.
In September, the largest number of visitors, namely 18,540, came to Georgia from Turkey. On an annual comparison, the number of Turkish visitors dropped by 80%.
47​ GEORGIA Country Report ​December 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com