At the moment, there are 482 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Armenia, of which 58 were confirmed in the past day. They were already in quarantine and they did not have a circle of contact. Some of them were doctors who were already at risk because they came into contact with coronavirus patients. There are only two cases that were new because they came to Armenia from elsewhere. Their circle of contact is currently being investigated. The Minister of Health, Arsen Torosyan, spoke about this during a special session of government. He was not seated in his usual place as a minister, but he was seated rather far away in order to uphold social distancing. One of the confirmed cases, according to Torosyan, is a soldier.
The minister said that there are 14 serious cases and 1 severe case at the moment, but Torosyan did not exclude the possibility of the severe case getting better soon and not requiring the use of a ventilator anymore. The other two people who are seriously ill and who were at risk of becoming severely ill will likely get better thanks to the work of the doctors and will be moved to a regular hospital room.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked whether or not it is possible to predict anything for those who are severely ill or if this virus is unpredictable. Torosyan said that worldwide, if a patient needs intensive therapy and is taken to the rehabilitation unit, then 50 percent of them need to use a ventilator to breathe, and those who are in the intubation generally are unable to get better and survive because they are already in the most serious phase of the virus.
Torosyan said that there are only a few patients in this phase and it will be difficult to make predictions because the cases are highly individual. “We have a patient who is in poor health who is also young. The possibility is high that this individual’s health will improve and that they will get better.” The minister said that the way each person will handle the virus depends on whether or not they have any chronic illnesses, because those who do not have chronic illnesses do not even need to go to the rehabilitation unit. Those who are in the intensive therapy stage have other chronic illnesses, except for one, according to Torosyan, because they went to the doctor too late, when they already had double pneumonia.
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The Minister of Defense, Davit Tonoyan, said that dozens of soldiers who were in quarantine or self-isolation will be returning to serve.
Torosyan said that there are also cases where people who are in self-isolation notice that they have symptoms, so they are taken to the hospital. “Approximately 250 people are no longer in self-isolation, and, if 10 percent of those in isolation test positive after 14 days, we increase the length of their mandatory self-isolation by one week.”
Younger people who do not have chronic illnesses or symptoms are quarantined in hotels because they do not need any medical assistance.
Pashinyan also asked if it is true that there are many cases of the coronavirus among young people. The minister said that it depends on the lifestyles of the young people in those particular countries, such as whether they are smokers or not.
Nelly Babayan
