Zurabishvili: Georgia "at crossroads" with pandemic challenge

Georgia is at a crossroads with the challenge of the latest wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and continued political polarisation ahead of municipal elections in October, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said in an address she released on Tuesday.

In a lengthy speech at Tbilisi's Orbeliani Palace residence, delivered amid intensifying election campaigns from parties and accompanying rhetoric - in addition to sharply increased rates of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country - the president appealed to common citizens as well as political forces about a critical point for the society, Agenda.ge reported.

Zurabishvili urged sceptics of vaccination among the population to reconsider "behaviour [that] is neither a question of personal choice nor of freedom of expression", stressing "[t]rue patriotism" would lie in "courage" of vaccination and "a sense of responsibility as members of society."