“I went out with my family for a walk yesterday and there were lots of people outside,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the beginning of the session of government when Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan said that a record number of new cases was confirmed and Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said that the decision to reopen a number of businesses on May 4th has not changed.
“It will be very difficult. We have established several mandatory conditions to prevent the spread of the virus, but it’s obvious that people are not following these rules. If we cannot encourage our citizens to not only be informed about the rules, but also encourage them to follow the rules, then we will have lots of problems. Because I was outside and people were even talking to each other in groups. If someone in that group was infected, then 10-15 people would also have been infected,” the Prime Minister said.
He said that the government is making such decisions without overcoming the virus because everyone hoped that the virus would subside within a month or two when the restrictions were put into place. “But now we are talking about easing restrictions not because we have conquered the virus, but because it is clear that we will have cases until March-April of next year at least. Therefore, we cannot continue to live in this regime for another year.”
Pashinyan said that the whole world is doing the same thing and it is important that the healthcare system was able to gain experience from treating the virus. “We all psychologically adapted to this situation. But I think that it’s important for this adaptation to take place behaviorally too so that we do not have to face new problems. Therefore, our biggest problem will be to establish new rules for business owners, private citizens, children, senior citizens, and middle-aged people so that we can live our lives as normally as possible because it is no longer possible for us to live like this. It is possible for approximately ten more days, but there is no more motivation. If we were to find out that we can stay like this for another month and the virus will subside, then it’s possible for us to do. But the fact remains that we know nothing will change within the next month that will allow us to return to our regular lives. This will be the case for the next year or so in Armenia and the rest of the world until a vaccine becomes available. Therefore, our challenge is to live in normal socioeconomic conditions.”
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Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan added that the main goal of the lockdown was to allow the healthcare system to have the ability to treat patients. He added that, if it becomes evident that the economic lockdown will cause dangerous consequences for citizens and the virus is spreading to the level where the healthcare system is unable to support patients, then the government will use restrictive measures. “We can return to the toughest regime possible. That is why it is important for business owners to strictly adhere to the rules. If anyone working for any business becomes infected, then the business will be forced to close.”
Nelly Babayan
