According to the Minister of Health of Georgia, Ekaterine Tikaradze, during the meeting with the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia and the spiritual leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, she provided detailed information about the epidemiology and vaccination.
According to the Minister, the Patriarchate welcomes all decisions taken to protect the health of citizens but said that the Patriarchate had taken a strong position that the Church will not be involved in active propaganda of vaccination.
"The purpose of the meeting was to inform the Patriarch about the epidemic situation in the country and the plan of the vaccination process. They perceive the problems that the world has faced because of the pandemic, and the Patriarchate welcomes all the sensible decisions made by the Ministry of Health to protect the health of our citizens.
The attitude of the Patriarch towards the issue is the same as ours, in favor of voluntary vaccination. We will not force our citizens to do anything. It is important to inform the citizens as much as possible about the security benefits, and we have talked through these current events," the Minister said.
The Minister clarified that the initiative of the meeting was bilateral, but she considers herself obliged to provide detailed information on the current events to the Patriarchate.
"I believe that I have an obligation towards the Patriarchate to inform them about the current events in the country," - said Ekaterine Tikaradze.
