Category: 2020

• ARMENPRESS reported, because of the growing number of novel coronavirus patients in Armenia, healthcare authorities have designated other hospitals in addition to the Nork Infectious Diseases hospital to treat the cases, Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan said. Earlier, all suspected and confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Armenia were being taken to the Nork Infectious Diseases Hospital in Yerevan. Torosyan said on March 21 that 5 medical facilities have been designated to treat coronavirus patients in Yerevan. He said that few patients are also currently hospitalized in two hospitals in provinces. “Asymptomatic patients are being taken to other hospitals, the others remain at the [Nork Infectious Diseases hospital]”, he said. The healthcare minister said so far 11 patients have been confirmed to have pneumonia by x-ray tests. Only 3 of them require intensive care. Torosyan said all patients are in non-life threatening condition. “I’d like to inform that today there are more than 600 people under quarantine. We find that the reserve is nearing its end, and we find that the preventive measures must be conditioned with self-quarantine. Experience shows that our citizens not always adhere to it. That’s why the parliament debated during a special session the bill on envisaging liability for the violation of self-quarantine or quarantine. I believe that this is a reasonable requirement, when a citizen is endangering public health, they must be held to account,” Torosyan said on social media. As of March 21, the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Armenia stands at 160. One patient has recovered and was discharged on March 15th. 

• President Donald Trump will cancel an in-person meeting of G7 leaders at Camp David in June because of the coronavirus and will hold a video-conference instead, the White House said on Thursday, REUTERS reported. The decision comes as nations around the world seal their borders and ban travel to stop the virus’ spread. Trump held a video-conference with the leaders of the world’s major industrialized countries earlier this week and plans to repeat that in April, May and June, when the physical meeting at the presidential retreat in Maryland was scheduled to take place.

• At Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the government of Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked the Cabinet members to thank with applause the country’s businessmen and healthcare providers for their work during the current state of emergency in Armenia due to coronavirus., NEWS.am said. “[Upper] Lars [checkpoint on the Russian-Georgian border] is closed, our border with Iran is closed, everything is closed, but it’s all the same; our businessmen are able to find ways, import food products, and I want to thank all of them,” he said, in particular. “If I saw the need to speak from this podium in the case of businessmen, there is no such need in the case of healthcare system workers because that appreciation is widespread and everywhere.”

• The Police in Moscow arrested Vahagn Harutyunyan, the lead of the investigative group investigating the case of mass disorders in the streets of Yerevan in 2008. Moscow Agency informed, referring to their sources in the law enforcement agencies, that Harutyunyan was arrested on March 14, LRAGIR.am said. “On March 14, Saturday on the Tverskaya Street, the police arrested Vahagn Styopa Harutyunyan born in 1994,” the news report says. Harutyunyan is charged with facilitating falsification of evidence to the case, as well as misuse of his formal powers resulting in grave consequences and misuse of formal powers along with the use of violence, weapons or special means. Harutyunyan was wanted since October 2018. Later on the Russian law enforcement agencies set him free. His extradition is going to be discussed soon.

• PANORAMA.am reported, guided by Article 208 of the Armenian Constitution and Article 6.1 of the constitutional law “On Referendum”, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) is suspending all activities, processes and events being carried out to prepare and hold the referendum on constitutional amendments initially slated for April 5, the commission said in a statement. The move comes after the Armenian government made a decision to declare a month-long state of emergency in the country on March 16.

• An extraordinary Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan., the Prime Minister Office said. The Government approved the draft decision “On declaring state of emergency in the Republic of Armenia.” The decision comes as a response the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the world and in Armenia, the March 13, 2020 declaration by the Head of WHO on the recognition of the spread of this disease as a pandemic. The Government decided to declare a state of emergency in the Republic of Armenia from March 16, 18:30, local time, through April 14, 17:00. A crisis management center (hereinafter Commandant’s Office) will set up to ensure centralized crisis management. Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan shall be appointed to the post of Commandant. The Commandant’s Office is composed as follows: Chief of Staff of the Office of the Prime Minister, Ministers of Emergency Situations, Healthcare, Economy, Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, State Revenue Committee Chairman, Acting Head of Police Force, Acting National Security Service Director, Head of the Coordination Bureau for Inspection Bodies’ Activities, Head of the Market Control Authority, Head of the Food Security Inspection Body. The Prime Minister’s Office and the Office of Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan will support the activities of the Commandant’s Office.

Sources: https://www.primeminister.am/en/press-release/, https://www.reuters.com/, https://armenpress.am, https://news.am/eng/,  https://www.panorama.am/en/, https://www.lragir.am/en/.

• Armenia will be the focus of the World Health Organization (WHO). This was stated in a telephone conversation with the President of the Republic of Armenia Armen Sargsyan by the Director General of WHO Tedros Adan Gebreisus, ARMINFO told. He noted that the WHO statement on the pandemic indicates the  complexity of the situation, in which there is an urgent need to  combine international and national efforts, to coordinate activities  on the part of states, in particular in terms of border control,  population movement and mutual assistance, which is especially  important for Armenia.

• President Armen Sarkissian sent a congratulatory message to His Holiness Pope Francis on the anniversary of his election as Pontiff, the Presidential Office said. Armen Sarkissian was the first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Vatican. In 1997 he received the St. Gregory the Great Order from His Holiness Pope John Paul II. Through his active participation, in 1999 in attendance of His Holiness blessed memory John Paul II and His Holiness blessed memory Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin I, the “Armenia-Rome” exhibition was opened at the Sistine Chapel to commemorate the rich common historical and cultural past. President Armen Sarkissian mentioned this in his message and noted also that Armenians’ ties and relations with Vatican go back millennia and nowadays Armenia-Vatican interstate relations continue to develop harmoniously.

• RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) reported, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday continued his tour of Armenian towns campaigning in next month’s constitutional referendum, signaling no need yet for suspending public rallies in view of new coronavirus cases confirmed in Armenia. Armenian authorities reported three new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total of confirmed cases to four. The country’s Ministry of Health said that two of the people testing positive for the novel coronavirus infection known as COVID-19 were citizens of Armenia aged 45 and 27 and one was a 51-year-old Italian who works in Armenia. All three had arrived from Italy, officials said. The first coronavirus patient identified in Armenia on March 1 had arrived from Iran, another country hit hard by COVID-19. Over three dozen people have been quarantined in a disused hotel in Armenia’s resort town of Tsaghkadzor since the beginning of the month as a precaution against the further spread of the infection.

• TASS informed, the World Health Organization (WHO) has officially characterized the situation with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as a pandemic, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated during Wednesday’s briefing in Geneva. “WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction,” the WHO chief stated. “We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic,” he said. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reminded that the disease had spread to 114 countries, with over 118,000 people infected.

• Contractual serviceman, 36-year-old Zohrab Sianosyan, who died from a gunshot fired by the Azerbaijani side on the border with Nakhchivan today, was from the Pokr Vedi village of the Ararat Province of Armenia and a father of two daughters aged 2 and 4. Head of the village Norik Martirosyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am that Zohrab had just gone to serve as a contractual serviceman and had been helping his parents with farming until then. Zohrab was the eldest, and his younger brother is working abroad. A soldier of the Armenian Armed Forces was killed in fire by Azerbaijani side, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Zohrab Sianosyan (born in 1984) was fatally wounded as Azerbaijani side opened fire on Tuesday afternoon in the direction of one of the military units in Armenia’s southwest. An investigation has been launched.

• Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has arrived in Brussels on a working visit. The head of the Armenian government first met with European Council President Charles Michel. After a formal photo session, the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of the European Council discussed a wide range of issues related to EU-Armenia cooperation. The meeting focused on the reform process underway in Armenia, the Prime Minister Office said. Welcoming Nikol Pashinyan’s visit, Charles Michel said it was a good opportunity to discuss cooperation prospects, including the effective implementation of democratic reforms in Armenia. Prime Minister Pashinyan appreciated EU’s support of the reforms being implemented in Armenia and expressed confidence that the EU-Armenia interaction will continue to develop effectively during Charles Michel’s tenure as President of the European Council.

• During the period from March 1 to 7 the Azerbaijani armed forces violated the ceasefire regime in the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact nearly 160 times by firing more than 1700 shots from various caliber weapons at the Armenian positions, the defense ministry of Artsakh told Armenpress. The Defense Army forces of Artsakh fully control the situation in the frontline and continue confidently conducting their military service.

Sources: https://www.primeminister.am/en/press-release/, https://www.president.am, https://www.azatutyun.am/en, https://armenpress.am, https://news.am/eng/, https://tert.am,  https://arminfo.info/.