TY - JOUR T1 - 10 minutes with Professor Amiran Gamkrelidze, Director General of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health of Georgia JF - BMJ Leader JO - BMJ Leader SP - 72 LP - 74 DO - 10.1136/leader-2020-000328 VL - 5 IS - 1 AU - Amiran Gamkrelidze AU - Kieran Walsh Y1 - 2021/03/01 UR - http://bmjleader.bmj.com/content/5/1/72.abstract N2 - BiographiesProfessor Amiran Gamkrelidze has been Director General of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health of Georgia since 2013. He is a Professor of the School of Sciences and Public Health at the University of Georgia and a Visiting Professor in Global Health at the Tromso University. He is also a Visiting Professor at the International Public Health School of the Tbilisi State Medical University. He has been a scientific advisor at the Center of Allergology and Immunology since 2005 and a Chair of Allergy and Immunology Alliance since 1990. In 2005–2013, Dr. Gamkrelidze worked as a Country Program Coordinator for the WHO Country office in Georgia; in 2001–2004, he was a Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs.Dr Kieran Walsh is Clinical Director at BMJ. He is the clinical lead of the medical education and clinical decision support resources at BMJ and also Adjunct Associate Professor in Teaching and Research at Monash University.In this brief interview Professor Amiran Gamkrelidze, Director General of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, explains his leadership role in the pandemic response and shares what he has learnt so far.Thus far, Georgia has performed well in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.1 The number of cases has remained relatively low and the health sector has managed to keep the outbreak under control. The government started preparing early and has maintained a good level of public confidence in its activities. This is likely to be due to a number of reasons. The response has been multisectoral; the public health community has led from the front; and the health system has been strengthening its human resources for health for a number of years. Georgia had a multisectoral response involving the health sector but also the ministries of education, … ER -