A resident of Gyumri, Anahit Najarian, who has been in Valencia, Spain since March, the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, returned to Armenia three days ago. She made some noteworthy statements regarding the measures taken by this European country against the coronavirus.
“I have not seen such restrictions or such respect for the law on behalf of the citizens. They followed the rules in unison. Valencia was completely empty; people were in self-isolation at home and they needed to fill out a special document in order to go out. Only one person was allowed to leave the house to go shopping for groceries. And people needed to do grocery shopping as quickly as possible while standing two meters apart from one another in the store. People were not allowed to gather in the stores; if one person was in the store, no one else was allowed to go in until they were finished. Every store had hand sanitizer and gloves. There was always one person on guard who made people sanitize their hands and wear gloves. Only then would they be allowed inside. Most people shop using debit cards there, but if someone was paying with cash, they’d set it down on the counter, the cashier would count the cash without touching it, and then would push the cash into the register using a wooden stick.”
She continued, “One police officer would guard every building. As soon as someone left the building, they would need to receive permission from the police. They needed to provide an explanation as to where they were going and why. If people were not going out to do shopping, they were not allowed to leave. I am amazed by the level of lawlessness. Public transportation was not allowed to operate at all. There weren’t even taxis. People were only allowed to travel in their personal vehicles. In the beginning, only one person was allowed to be in the car. When they eased some of the restrictions, another person was allowed, but they needed to sit in the back, not in the passenger seat. No one violated these rules. One warning resulted in a fine of 300 euros, a second warning was 600 euros, and so on.”
She said that she received unique treatment at the Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan. “I am very pleased with the work of our airport employees. I traveled from Valencia to Barcelona. No one besides travelers was allowed to go to the airport in Barcelona and there was only one flight to Belarus. When we reached Armenia, we all had our temperatures checked. One older man had a temperature of 37.3, and he was quickly taken into self-isolation. We were surprised by how fast they were. They did not allow him to go to the airport- they took him into isolation at once. They took great care of us. There were doctors and people in military uniforms everywhere.”
She continued, “They checked our temperature at every gate and when we reached passport control, we had to remove our gloves and masks, sanitize our hands, and they gave us new ones. Then we got to medical control, where we had to tell them where we came from, everyone we came into contact with, and we gave them our phone numbers. There were 20 or so doctors filling out information on computers. They also asked us about how we were feeling. They gave us one copy of this documentation and the other went to the police. They warned us that they would be following us through our phones,” Ms. Anahit said.
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She also spoke about the special buses used to take them from Zvartnots to their homes. “We also were treated very well here. They disinfected us and our suitcases, as well as our phones. The drivers were wearing special protective gear. There were also doctors in some minibuses. The drivers dropped everyone off right in front of their homes and they even waited until the individual was inside. More than six people were not allowed inside one minibus. There is a lot of work taking place. Everyone working at Zvartnots was young and it was obvious that they were working without breaks. I have not seen such treatment in any country. All that remains is for our citizens to follow the rules as Spanish people did so that the virus can subside here, too,” Anahit Najarian said.
Nune Arevshatyan
