“It is impossible to quarantine everyone who has traveled to Armenia, and it’s the same situation in every country. For example, none of the hundreds of Armenian citizens who returned from China had the coronavirus, thankfully, and the same is for those who came from Europe,” Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan told reporters in response to a question about why all citizens who came from Italy were not immediately quarantined.
Three new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia. All three of those individuals came to Armenia from Italy. Two of them are Armenian citizens, and one is an Italian citizen. During the session of government, Arsen Torosyan said that 10 citizens have been quarantined in special conditions at the Golden Palace Hotel in Tsaghadzor. He said that Armenia is doing everything in accordance with what is necessary to prevent pandemics. Torosyan said that everyone who came into contact with the 3 coronavirus victims is being quarantined. “One of them came into contact with a large number of people, but we were able to identify all of them. The Italian citizen also came into contact with many people, and all of them were immediately quarantined.”
Responding to criticism about why these people were allowed to go home and how this is poorly organized, Torosyan said that Armenia is carrying out everything in the strictest way possible. The National Center for Disease Control, police, and other bodies are working 24 hours a day. It is not necessary to do more than what is already being done.
“Our goal is to diagnose the virus as early as possible, test people, figure out their circle of contact, and prevent the disease from spreading. Nothing more than that has taken place for any contagious illness. The same happened with measles, which is 10 times more contagious than the coronavirus,” the minister said.
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There are 41 people quarantined in Tsaghladzor and six families in Yerevan. After the briefing, the minister wrote on Facebook, “Everyone the three new coronavirus victims came into contact with has been identified and quarantined. There are 57 people in total.”
He also did not exclude the possibility of limiting public gatherings. A decision on whether or not to close schools will also be made.
Nelly Babayan
