During an extraordinary session, the Armenian parliament held discussions regarding the government’s drafted legislation package, according to which the state of emergency to prevent the spread of the coronavirus will not be extended after September 11th. Instead, the Ministry of Health, the governors, government, and community leaders will be able to order a lockdown on movement, entry and exit from the Armenian border, gatherings, events, quarantine, and self-isolation.
The legislative package also outlined that the data system for citizens’ movement, which had been used in previous months to track the movement and circle of contact of coronavirus patients, will no longer be used.
My Step deputy Armen Khachatryan asked the reporter for the legislative package and Deputy Minister of Justice Rafik Grigoryan about the reason behind this decision since the movement system allowed the government to keep the coronavirus under control. Rafik Grigoryan said, “The problem is that the system dealt with several constitutional rights given to individuals, which can be limited during a dangerous pandemic. However, the government did not consider it to be beneficial to include the system in this stage of the legislative package. Since the virus has subsided somewhat, we are not going to enforce such limitations or the use of such a system. If the situation worsens and the number of patients increases, we will be able to discuss the issue.”
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Armen Khachatryan expressed that the movement system can be effective when the virus begins to subside. “It will enable us to have an individual approach towards every patient.”
The legislative package must be discussed and put up for a second reading.
Luiza Sukiasyan
