12:15,

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian continues his discussions with international partners on the prevention and treatment-related issues of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This time the President had a telephone conversation with Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, Professor, Lord Ara Darzi and head of the medical center adjunct to the Moscow State University Aramayis Kamalov, the Office of the President told Armenpress.  

During the telephone talk with academician Kamalov, the President discussed the possible cooperation in the field of medical engineering.

Coming to the phone conversation with Lord Ara Darzi, the Armenian President highlighted uniting the efforts to overcome the disease, as well as the necessity to cooperate, exchange information and provide mutual support. The President informed that during an online lecture with the students of the Yerevan State Medical University and the National Polytechnic University he proposed the future doctors and engineers to start thinking of creating and producing simple lung ventilation systems in Armenia for the treatment of the novel coronavirus. In this respect, he proposed Mr. Darzi to provide support to this initiative by the engineering specialists of the Imperial College London and cooperate with the two Armenian universities.

On March 21 the Armenian President also had a phone talk with the well-known Armenian-American entrepreneur, philanthropist and venture capitalist Noubar Afeyan, the co-founder and chairman of the US bio-tech company Moderna Therapeutics. The American Moderna Therapeutics biotechnological company has created a vaccine against the novel coronavirus which has been undergoing clinical trial since March 17 in US, at the Kaiser Permanente healthcare research institution in Seattle, Washington.

In this context President Sarkissian welcomes today’s video conference to be organized by the FAST Foundation, involving Lord Ara Darzi, Aurora Humanitarian Initiative Co-Founder Noubar Afeyan, and IDeA Foundation Co-founder, Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and UWC Dilijan International School Co-founder Ruben Vardanyan, Armenian Healthcare Minister Arsen Torosyan and London and McKinsey & Company executive Andre Andonian.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan