20:23, 1 March, 2020

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, his wife Anna Hakobyan and their three daughters are visiting the resort town of Tsaghkadzor in Armenia.

Pashinyan shared a photo from what appears to be the Yasaman Restaurant near the central plaza of the spa town. “We came to one of the restaurants of Tsaghkadzor. The venue is virtually full of patrons. Including with foreign tourists,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a Facebook post. Before that, they also shared a photo from near the town’s church.

Earlier today, 31 direct contacts of the first novel coronavirus case in Armenia were quarantined at a defunct hotel in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor.

Shortly after the news, PM Pashinyan said he receives information that some visitors and tourists to the town are cancelling their hotel bookings. He dismissed the concerns and said that the quarantine at the closed Golden Palace hotel doesn’t anyhow affect the town’s life. He called on the general public to refrain from panicking or spreading disinformation. The Golden Palace hotel is a defunct, previously 5-star rated luxury hotel currently owned by the government which authorities were trying to auction off. Now, it is used as the quarantine zone for the 31 people who are being provided with high-level accommodation services and care.

In an apparent effort to dismiss the unsubstantiated panic and purported hotel booking cancellations in the town, the Armenian Prime Minister announced that he and his family are heading to the resort town to spend the night there at a local hotel.

Meanwhile, Healthcare Minister Arsen Torosyan, Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture Arayik Harutyunyan and other officials also visited the town.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan