11:36, 31 January, 2020

YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, ARMENPRESS. Armenia already has an agreement with a Chinese company and will soon acquire the laboratory test for the novel coronavirus, Healthcare Minister Arsen Torosyan said at a news conference on January 31.

“We have a problem of medical diagnostic tests, everyone has this problem because this is a new disease, and the test is under development. However, we already have an agreement with a Chinese manufacturer for acquiring this test. Our embassy will acquire these tests in a few hours and will send it to Armenia in order to be used in the event of necessity,” he said.

He said the testing methods are used only in the event of a patient displaying clinical symptoms.

So far, he said, there hasn’t been any suspected case in Armenia among arriving travelers. Those who had fever or other flu-like symptoms turned out to have simple respiratory infections or illnesses.

“I can say with 99,9% certainty that we don’t have any [confirmed coronavirus] case in Armenia as of now,” he said.

On January 30, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. 

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan