Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made several announcements during a recent Facebook live video. He began with the good news that the man who came to Armenia from Iran who was the first coronavirus patient is now going to return home without the need for any treatment.
The bad news is that 28 cases have been confirmed (Translator’s note: At the time this article was published, it was confirmed that the number of cases has reached 30). Eighteen of those cases are connected to the engagement party in Ejmiatsin. “We discussed that we need to carry out additional steps in connection to Ejmiatsin. The good news is that all the new coronavirus cases are from people who have already been quarantined. Only three of the 27 entrances to the city will operate. All of our compatriots attempting to leave Ejmiatsin will have their temperatures checked. We will ask those who have a fever to return home and self-quarantine. After 11:00 PM on March 15th, we will ask all residents of Ejmiatsin to leave the city using the Vagharshapat-Yerevan route, where there will be medical and police staff. The other roads that will operate are the Vagharshapat-Ashtarak path leading to the Shahumyan village and the Vagharshapat-Masis route leading to the Voskehat village. These three routes will be open and the others will close. The temperatures of everyone attempting to enter or leave will be checked. Those who have fevers will be asked to self-quarantine.”
The government will also hold discussions on other steps that need to be taken. According to Nikol Pashinyan, it seems like additional steps need to be taken.
There are also discussions about people being infected with H1N1. The Prime Minister said that 30 people died from the virus in 2016, but there was no official data from 2009 since the virus was new at the time. However, specialists claim that there were 50 deaths from the virus then. At the time, IT and social media were less active. “Thank God, we are now in a better situation and there are only two patients at risk who are 71 and 67 years old, but they are both feeling well.”
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Regarding opinions that all Armenian citizens from Iran needed to have been quarantined from the beginning, Pashinyan said that there were only 5 or 6 cases from the Armenian citizens who arrived from Iran and Italy out of hundreds. “Our decision was that people would only be quarantined if they medically needed to do so instead of having it based on where they came from. If we began to quarantine people then, we all understand that the potential for quarantine is not unlimited. We couldn’t have quarantined everyone.”
The Prime Minister said that, if everyone was quarantined, for example, there wouldn’t have been any room for the 150 Armenian citizens who arrived from Italy. The government still would have asked for everyone to self-quarantine and the situation would’ve been exactly the same. “All of our decisions were correct and they were based on information provided by the WHO. We are in control of the situation. We need to overcome this situation in unison and by being there for each other. We all need to have a sense of personal responsibility.”
Hripsime Jebejyan
