4 p.m.

During a press conference, Sahak Ohanyan, head of the Military Medical Department of Armenia’s Armed Forces, spoke about the situation of COVID-19 in the army. He said he would not disclose information about the number of the infected in the army or the number of military personnel in self-isolation but reassured that none of the infected military personnel have pneumonia, are in critical condition or on ventilators. Ohanyan said that as of April 13, six soldiers have recovered and are on their way to continue their service. He also said the Military Medical Department is more than ready and equipped to handle the situation and for the time being there is no need to bring the army to a state of alert. 

According to Ohanyan, the Military Medical Department has considerable expertise in dealing with viral infections as large collectives like the army are always at risk. Ohanyan said their department has been able to contain the spread of the H1N1 virus in the military ranks with great success years ago. There were also several other instances of viral infections being contained over the years, instances that the public usually is not aware of. And it is due to the effectiveness of the department and the dozens of different measures implemented that the number of infections in the army are minimal compared to the number of infections in the country. 

Ohanyan said the upcoming conscription call-up will commence as scheduled. The military commissions are ready for the conscription, everyone has been provided with the necessary means of protection, the premises will be disinfected before and after each day the commissions are at work.  

Ohanyan also said they are collaborating with the Artsakh Defense Army in taking preventative measures but have not collaborated in regards to stopping the spread of the virus. He said he receives daily updates from Artsakh and can ensure that the Artsakh Defense Army is not facing any problems. Ohanyan also said no soldiers/conscripts of the Armenian Armed Forces serving in Artsakh have the virus.  

About 165 tests have been carried out by the mobile clinic that was delivered from the Russian Federation. Ohanyan said there were some positive results, but the majority of the tests came back negative. The mobile laboratory has been operational since April 9 and is being administered by a Armenian-Russian joint workforce. But according to Ohanyan, after only several days of training, yesterday, the Armenian team was able to fully take over the operation of the clinic. 

According to Ohanyan, taking into consideration the strain the laboratories of the Ministry of Health are working under, the COVID-19 tests of the military are parallelly sent to an American clinic here in Armenia and the Russian team. 

Ohanyan confirmed that one of the employees of an organization the Army had outsourced services to, had exhibited COVID-19 symptoms; the employee had immediately notified the team, everyone was isolated and the whole catering crew was replaced the same day.  Ohanyan said the employee in question was in charge of washing dishes and had no connection to preparing or serving food. 

Ohanyan also confirmed that other than the known cases of infection in a non-combat service battalion of the Armed Forces, there were COVID-19 cases also registered among conscripts. Three conscripts have already recovered and the rest are expected to be released soon as well.  

2:15 p.m.
Tigran Avinyan, Warden of the Special Commission and the Deputy Prime Minister presented the government’s decision to extend the State of Emergency until May 14, because the reasons for declaring the state of emergency have not been fully addressed yet. Avinyan noted that since January 2019 and with the spread of COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a world health emergency, which has quickly grown into a global pandemic and humanitarian crisis affecting over 213 countries and territories around the world. The spread of the virus has shown that no country was prepared for such rapid developments, Avinyan said adding that the world after the pandemic, is going to be very different in terms of socio-economic, political and cultural aspects. The top two goals of each country is to effectively manage the crisis and be prepared for the world after coronavirus.

In the fight against the pandemic, there is no absolutely effective strategy, it is impossible to completely eradicate the virus and the vaccine is still months or even a year away, the Deputy Prime Minister said. The steps taken by various countries are aimed at managing the uncertainties. Societies around the world are faced with a dilemma: to try to limit the speed of transmission of the virus and minimize deaths so that healthcare systems are able to provide services to patients, or allow the rapid spread of the virus (which would pose higher risks to human health), so that people build up an immunity and are able to return to their normal life as soon as possible. Avinyan said that the majority of countries are moving forward with the first option, without excluding the possibility that they may shift towards the second alternative. 

Amid the present uncertainties, countries are shifting towards a crisis management regiment, in which an adequate response to the crisis, resource management and mobilization, as well as development of new rules of coexistence are of critical importance.

Speaking about the demographic patterns of Armenia, Avinyan said that 12 percent of Armenia’s permanent population or more than 353,000 people are at risk, based on their age alone. People with chronic diseases are also in the risk group: over 77,000 citizens of Armenia have diabetes, more than 71,000 people have coronary artery disease, the number of people with hypertension is 145,000. Those who have more than one chronic disease are at most risk. Speaking about the employment sector, Avinyan noted that education (about 110,000), retail and service industry (over 104,000) and manufacturing industry (over 68,000) have the most number of registered employees.

Avinyan explained that if the government did not introduce any restrictive measures, over 89 percent of Armenia’s population would be infected with the virus by now, 110,000 people would be infected in Yerevan alone and 8,200 people in the capital would be in serious condition, requiring hospitalization. In this scenario, Armenia’s healthcare system would have been unable to adequately respond to the crisis. The initial steps of the government were to develop strategic directions for preventing the spread of the virus, assess the healthcare system and its readiness to respond to the virus, identify the restrictive methods that can be implemented and outline the methodology of identifying the infected patients, for all the possible scenarios.

While developing its strategic response to COVID-19, the government tried to flatten the curve, avoid peaks that are out of control, maintain stable healthcare response, and neutralize infection cases among people in the risk groups. Avinyan also spoke about some of the principles that the government adopted during the past several weeks. He stressed the importance of a preventive and proactive approach instead of reactive one. The Deputy PM also clarified that the establishment of the state of emergency may be accompanied by restrictions on movement as well as restrictions on certain economic activities. Strengthening or easing those restrictions will be based on the readiness of the healthcare system and the dynamics of the spread of the virus. Restrictive measures are always accompanied by other preventive measures, as long as the country has not flattened the coronavirus curve. The government prioritizes socio-economic activities, and the activities of certain business enterprises will be allowed (of course if they follow the rules).

Avinyan explained that the government action plan is divided into four stages and that as of today they are in the third stage, which assumes the intensive use of location tracking tools, stricter restrictions and increased testing capacity. Some of the actions that were taken during the first stage included closing the border with neighbouring Iran (February 23), closing educational institutions and cultural sites (March 13), closing the border with Georgia, which remains closed up until now (March 14), declaring a state of emergency and establishing the Special Commission (March 16), and launching the hotline (March 21). During the first stage, the government worked extensively to quarantine infected or potentially infected people, and restrict the movement of those who returned to Armenia from highly affected countries. The assessment of the first stage showed that with lighter restrictions, the virus spread throughout the capital Yerevan and seven of Armenia’s regions, and that stricter restriction and oversight mechanisms are needed.

Some of the actions that were taken during the second stage include declaring restrictions on certain economic activities and introducing fines for violations during the state of emergency (March 23), introducing restrictions on self-isolation (March 25). The stricter restrictions that were introduced during this stage have been quite effective: peoples’ movement during pique hours (5 p.m. to 8 p.m.) has decreased by over 40 percent after stricter measures were introduced. Before these stricter restrictions were introduced, peoples' movement decreased by 25 percent only.

Some of the major developments during the third stage were tightening restrictions and extending them until April 12 [March 31, adopting draft bills by the National Assembly, giving the legal basis to track peoples’ location, adopting a decision to extend the state of emergency (April 11) and discussing the government’s proposal to extend the state of emergency at the Parliament (April 13)]. Avinyan said that the introduced restrictions can be tightened or eased depending on the developments of each week. He also said that the country’s current bed capacity allows them to provide services to 1,700 patients.

Speaking about the location tracking tools, Avinyan spoke about the draft bill which was adopted by Parliament and allows them to identify the circle of people that have come into contact with an infected or potentially infected person. So far, data on over 3,000 people who had contact with 315 infected patients was gathered by an automated system. The electronic app that was also launched recently and checks the health status of people, has over 60,000 downloads. Over 4,900 of those who took the online test, were marked as being in the “red zone,” and 1,600 of them have already been contacted by responsible bodies. Eventually, 21 people were required to take the test, four of whom tested positive for COVID-19.

Avinyan also spoke about the government’s strategy moving forward and stressed that the restrictions of movement that were introduced on March 31 will be in force until the end of April; public and inter-regional transportation will continue being shut down, the entrance of foreign nationals to the territory of Armenia will continue being forbidden. Restrictions on economic activity will continue being in place, with certain exceptions. Based on the developments in the current third stage, the government has several different courses of action in place.

12 p.m.

The special session of government unanimously voted to extend the state of emergency (SOE) for an additional 30 days until May 14 at 5 p.m. The initial SOE expires on April 14. Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan said that Article 5.2 of the Law on a State of Emergency states that if the circumstances that were the basis for declaring a state of emergency have not been eliminated within the specified period, the period may be extended. Article 7 (restrictions on mass media regarding COVID-19 news) of the government decision on SOE has been lifted. The media will be monitored and in case of a hike in the number of fake news, the decision will be reversed. Traffic and parking tickets will not be issued during the SOE. The government reserves the right to appropriate private property for state needs connected to the fight against COVID-19 (such as taking over someone’s property to convert it into a hospital). 

11 a.m.
Deputy Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan addressed parliament and presented the government's proposal to make amendments to the Law on Medicine. Avanesyan said that the government recommends changing the deadline for the mandatory licensing requirement for companies involved in wholesale trade of medicines from April 15 to August 15. Narek Zeynalyan, the Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Health Care and Social Affairs also spoke about the bill saying that there is a licensing process for businesses involved in the wholesale of pharmaceuticals, which were required to get their license and be able/qualified to perform their activities by the April 15 deadline. Considering the current state of emergency, however, the government is proposing to give those companies an additional four months to get the required license. During the first reading, Parliament unanimously voted in favor of the proposed changes (114 votes in favor).

Parliament also discussed making amendments to the Law On Medical Aid and Population Services and the Law on Licensing. While presenting the bill, Deputy Minister Avanesyan said that with the proposed changes, it is recommended to use the services and capacity of medical centers, even if they are not licensed to provide certain services (for example they do not have Department of Infectious Diseases). It is also proposed to involve students who are about to complete their residency program in the process, in order to maximize the medical care provided to those infected with coronavirus. With the recommended changes, it would be possible to make sure that hospitals are staffed with additional healthcare providers, which would consequently, guarantee that adequate care is provided to patients infected with COVID-19. Avanesyan also clarified that the nine hospitals where patients infected with coronavirus currently are being treated, are intended for those patients only, to control the spread of the virus within the hospital. 

Avanesyan went on to say that the Ministry is considering different scenarios and does not rule out that with the further spread of the virus, certain hospitals and medical centers will be treating both coronavirus patients as well as their regular patients. Although it is difficult to make predictions at this stage, the Ministry is thinking a few steps ahead and wants to be ready to provide services to an increased number of COVID-19 patients by introducing the necessary regulations and training additional healthcare providers; they are preparing for the worst case scenario. Avanesyan noted that the Ministry is also in regular contact with diasporan Armenian healthcare providers and researchers working in different parts of the world, who are sharing their experience and the latest treatment methods of the pandemic with their counterparts in Armenia.

Gevorg Petrosyan, a member of the Prosperous Armenia faction asked about the legal process of the involvement of additional medical staff in the process and whether an employment contract will be signed with them to make sure that their services are in compliance with the law. Avanesyan clarified that the additional medical professionals will undergo mandatory training before their involvement and that the government will sign an employment contract with all of them in the manner prescribed by law.

The Chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee Zeynalyan also provided some clarification regarding the proposed changes. He said that considering the spread of the pandemic, there are medical centers, which despite not having a specific license have been treating patients infected with COVID-19. Medical professionals who do not have the required qualifications have also been involved in the process, following mandatory training. Zeynalyan noted that the proposed changes provide the legal basis for more medical centers and healthcare professionals to be involved in the process, if needed. Parliament unanimously voted to pass the proposed amendment in the first reading (115 votes in favor).

11 a.m.
According to the Ministry of Health, there are 26 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Armenia, bringing the total number to 1039. So far, 211 patients have recovered, bringing the total number of active cases to 814.

April 12

President Bako Sahakyan held a meeting with the inter-departmental commission tasked with preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the Republic of Artsakh today. Representatives of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government also participated.

Following the meeting, President Sahakyan addressed the people of Artsakh and informed them that he had signed a decree declaring an Emergency Situation in order to prevent the transmission of the virus and to protect the population from any threat.

Legally, an Emergency Situation is distinct from a State of Emergency. Only the latter would postpone elections. The runoff election scheduled for April 14 will go ahead according to schedule. Masis Mayilyan, who came in second, has told voters to stay home to reduce the risk of transmission.

April 12

Easter services looked very different this year throughout the world and including Armenia. Catholicos Karekin II led the divine liturgy in Etchmiadzin, viewable through Facebook Live as it was closed to the public. In Antelias, Lebanon, Catholicos Aram I also livestreamed the Easter mass. The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem will observe Easter on April 19, in accordance with the Julian calendar.