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    Categories: 2020

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 05/28/2020

                                        Thursday, 

Infected Official Slams Armenian Health Authorities

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia -- A medical worker clad in protecive gear and an ambulance parked at 
the entrance to Surp Grigor Lusavorich hospital, Yerevan, April 8, 2020.

A senior government official infected with coronavirus has lambasted the 
Armenian health authorities, saying that he did not receive adequate medical 
care in hospital and was sent home despite developing more health problems.

Faced with a rapidly growing number of coronavirus cases, the authorities 
stopped late last week hospitalizing or isolating people who show mild symptoms 
of the disease or none at all. They also began discharging fully or mostly 
asymptomatic patients from hospitals.

The Ministry of Health said that state-run policlinics across Armenia have been 
ordered to monitor such patients and give them necessary treatment or medication 
if need be.

Aram Babajanian, an adviser to the head of the Armenian government’s Urban 
Development Committee, and his wife were discharged from a Yerevan hospital at 
the weekend more than one week after testing positive for coronavirus.

In an interview with Hetq.am published late on Wednesday, Babajanian claimed 
that they barely underwent any treatment in the hospital and were sent home 
despite continuing to suffer from pneumonia and not having a second coronavirus 
test. He said a handful of hospital workers only measured their temperature and 
blood oxygen levels twice a day and left most of their questions unanswered.

Babajanian also claimed that the purported treatment caused him to develop a 
fungal disease and problems with his liver.

The 68-year-old official stood by his allegations when he spoke to RFE/RL’s 
Armenian service by phone on Thursday.

“I don’t know now whether or not I still have pneumonia and whether or not I’m 
still a coronavirus carrier,” he said. “As a result of the ‘treatment’ given to 
me, my [blood] test results only worsened and I don’t know the current state of 
my liver.”

“How should I continue my treatment and where should I have blood tests or a 
computerized tomography scan to find out the condition of my lungs if I’m 
supposed to remain in self-isolation for two weeks?” asked Babajanian.

The Ministry of Health dismissed the claims, insisting that the couple’s 
treatment was proper and “smooth.” A ministry statement said the hospital in 
question has a good track record of saving the lives of COVID-19 patients.

The statement also charged that Babajanian and his wife are unhappy because they 
demanded privileged treatment from the hospital staff but were denied it. It 
said they wanted to be checked by a medical professor.

Babajanian categorically denied that. “I demand that they name the person to 
whom I said such a thing … They are telling obvious lies,” he said.

Babajanian further alleged that doctors from a policlinic close to his place of 
residence refused to help when he contacted them after being released from the 
hospital.

Speaking at a news briefing held later in the day, Health Minister Arsen 
Torosian acknowledged “some tension” between policlinic staff and infected 
Armenians confined to their homes. He blamed it on the inexperience of 
policlinic doctors who are only now starting to deal with coronavirus infections.

Torosian also urged disgruntled patients to alert his ministry about problems 
encountered by them through a special telephone hotline.

Inessa Petrosian, a well-known lawyer, was also told to self-isolate in her 
apartment after contracting COVID-19 recently. She too complained about the 
plight of people like her.

“I manage to somehow solve my issues but I’m sure that many other citizens stuck 
in their homes are only doing one thing: measuring their temperatures,” 
Petrosian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “But this virus is such that you don’t 
know what your temperature will be moments later. People who haven’t had their 
lungs examined don’t know what other problems they may have shortly afterwards, 
and nobody else cares.”




Armenia Reports Single-Day Record For Coronavirus Deaths

        • Tatevik Lazarian
        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenia -- A COVID-19 patient at the intensive care unit of Surp Grigor 
Lusavorich hospital, Yerevan, May 10, 2020. (A photo by the Armenian Mnistry of 
Health)

Armenia’s government dismissed on Thursday growing calls for a fresh nationwide 
lockdown following a record-high number of daily coronavirus deaths registered 
in the country.

The Ministry of Health reported in the morning that 15 more people died from 
coronavirus in the past day, taking the official death toll to 113.

The toll does not include the deaths of 44 other people infected with the virus. 
The ministry says that those fatalities were primarily caused by other, 
pre-existing conditions.

The ministry also reported that the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases 
in the country of about 3 million rose by 442 to 8,216. The official figures 
suggest that more than a third of daily coronavirus tests came back positive on 
Wednesday.

According to Health Minister Arsen Torosian, at least 324 COVID-19 patients 
treated in Armenian hospitals are now in a severe or critical condition. “These 
numbers explain the sharp increase in deaths,” said Alina Nikoghosian, a 
spokeswoman for Torosian.

Torosian repeatedly warned last week of an impending shortage of intensive care 
beds in the hospitals, saying that they may soon be unable to give life-saving 
treatment to all patients. He said this could lead to a significant increase in 
coronavirus deaths.

The Armenian health authorities have so far set up a total of only about 200 
beds at the intensive care units of the hospitals dealing with the COVID-19 
epidemic. More than 150 of them were reportedly occupied as of Sunday.

The accelerating spread of the virus forced the authorities on May 22 to stop 
hospitalizing or isolating infected people showing mild symptoms of the disease 
or none at all. They also began discharging asymptomatic patients from the 
hospitals.

The daily numbers of new COVID-19 infections and deaths have increased 
significantly since the Armenian government began lifting in mid-April lockdown 
restrictions imposed in late March. All sectors of the Armenian economy were 
allowed to resume their work by May 10.


Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during a cabinet meeting in 
Yerevan .

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian made clear on Wednesday that despite the “quite 
severe situation” the government is not planning to again restrict people’s 
movements and shut down much of the economy. He repeated that ordinary Armenians 
can easily defeat the virus if they frequently wash their hands, wear face masks 
and practice social distancing.

About a dozen Armenian civic organizations strongly criticized on Thursday this 
strategy of tackling the epidemic, saying that the safety rules set by the 
government are flouted by many citizens and not properly enforced by the police 
and sanitary authorities.

In a joint statement, they warned that the country’s overstretched healthcare 
system is facing “collapse” because of the growing number of new COVID-19 
infections. The only way to prevent a greater disaster is to impose a strict 
nationwide lockdown that would last for at least two weeks, said the statement.

Pashinian’s spokeswoman, Mane Gevorgian, disagreed, saying that the office of a 
government “commandant” enforcing a coronavirus-related state of emergency in 
Armenia “at the moment sees no need to again impose a lockdown.”

“That is one of the scenarios but it is not a desirable one,” Gevorgian told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “Given the economic situation and the [warming] 
weather, it’s very hard to keep people at home.”

“People want to get out, which is why we can only urge people to follow the 
rules when leaving their homes: to wear masks, practice social distancing and 
not gather in groups,” she said.


Armenia -- Young women stroll in the center of Yerevan, May 25, 2020.
“Very soon people will start dying [in even larger numbers,] many of them 
without receiving adequate medical aid,” countered one of the NGO statement’s 
signatories, Daniel Ioannisian of the Union of Informed Citizens.

“This is also the result of actions and inactivity of the commandant’s office 
and the police,” said Ioannisian. “In this sense, their approaches are 
unacceptable. They can’t support the economy at the expense of human lives 
because we are losing both the economy and lives as a result.”

The civic activist also said that the authorities failed to properly enforce the 
lockdown imposed by them earlier this spring. He said the coronavirus crisis has 
since become so serious that the authorities have not only switched to home 
confinement of most infected people but also stopped tracing and isolating all 
other individuals who have been in contact with them.

“The state is not trying to control the spread of the virus in any way simply 
because it has reached such a scale that the state is not even able to control,” 
added Ioannisian.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

 


Janet Ekmekjian: