Thursday, March 03, 2020
Coronavirus Cases In Armenia Keep Rising
March 27, 2020
• Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia -- Healthcare workers are seen outside the Nork hospital in Yerevan
which deals with most coronavirus cases in Armenia, March 20, 2020.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia rose by 39 to 329 in the
past 24 hours, health authorities reported on Friday morning.
Health Minister Arsen Torosian said later in the day that a 72-year-old person
who died in hospital on Thursday remains the country’s sole fatality from the
deadly virus.
Torosian said another elderly patient remains in critical condition. “We also
have one citizen who is in serious condition,” he added in a live Facebook
transmission. “The lives of the other [infected persons] are not at risk right
now. Many patients are asymptomatic.”
The latter include a young woman and her two-month-old baby, the minister went
on. “The child has showed no symptoms [of the disease] while the mother had a
fever for two days but is showing no symptoms now. They both are in hospital.”
Torosian also reported that ten more people have been cured of the COVID-19
virus, raising to 28 the total number of such recoveries in Armenia.
According to Armenian government data, Yerevan accounts for around half of the
infections. The vast majority of the other coronavirus cases were registered in
the surrounding Armavir, Ararat and Kotayk provinces.
Health authorities have quarantined at least 3,000 people in the last two weeks.
Officials say around 150 of them have been released from the two-week quarantine
after repeatedly testing negative for the virus.
Armenia -- A police officer enforcing a coronavirus lockdown checks a woman's
documents, Yerevan, March 25, 2020.
The Armenian government declared a state of emergency and closed all schools and
universities on March 16 shortly after reporting the first coronavirus cases.
Earlier this week, it also ordered the closure of most businesses and imposed
stringent restrictions on people’s movement in an effort to slow the spread of
the disease.
Armenians are only allowed out to buy food, receive medical care and briefly
exercise. When leaving their homes they must carry IDs and filled-out forms
explaining their reasons for not staying indoors. The Armenian police said that
in the last three days they have fined more than 1,400 people for not complying
with these restrictions.
The authorities have also suspended bus services between Yerevan and the rest of
the country. Deputy Minister for Local Government Armen Simonian told reporters
on Friday that public transport links among communities located within each of
the ten provinces outside the Armenian capital will also be temporarily banned.
Armenia’s borders with Georgia and Iran were closed for travel earlier this
month. People have since been able to enter and leave the country only by air.
According to Simonian, only one Belarusian and four Russian airlines continued
to fly to and from Yerevan on Friday.
This means that Armenia will be effectively cut off from the outside world after
a Russian government ban on all commercial flights abroad comes into force early
on Saturday.
‘An Eastern Partnership that delivers for all’
March 27, 2020
An op-ed by the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, and
commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi.
In this challenging time, marked by the coronavirus outbreak, we can see how
important international cooperation is. Over the last decade, the Eastern
Partnership has brought concrete benefits for people in Armenia and across the
European Union’s eastern neighbourhood.
The European Union provides Armenian companies, which will be economically hit
the hardest by the pandemics, with funding, training, and export support to new
markets, through the EU4Business initiative. Since 2009, the European Union
loaned the companies in Armenia €500 million, supported 25,000 enterprises and
created 2,500 new jobs.
The European Union also supports one of the most growing industries in the
country – tourism. For example, with our help the Dilijan Tourist Information
Centre and Arts and Crafts Centres were established, together with 11 hiking
trails in Dilijan National Park and 300 km trails in Syunik, Gegharkunik and
Vayots Dzor. The tourism projects in Armenia created over 100 new jobs for the
local population and supported more than 300 local SMEs.
The Pilot Regional Development Programme Grant Scheme ‘EU4Regions: support to
Regional Development in Armenia’ supported regional and local economic
development and created 544 new jobs. Under the project, support was provided to
2,831 individuals to improve their employability, as well as to 719 enterprises.
This allowed creating 460 new, sustainable jobs.
Over the past 14 years, the European Union has supported Armenian colleges’
educational reforms, renovation and upgrading. Over 4,500 students have
benefited from the reforms supported by the EU, and 17 colleges have been
renovated. The ‘Organic Agriculture’ training module has been introduced in 15
colleges. Under Erasmus+ (2014-2020), over 1,800 students and academic staff
from Armenia have studied or taught in Europe, and 885 Europeans went to
Armenia. In addition, over 6,800 young people and youth workers took part in
short-term exchanges, mobility, training and volunteering projects.
To ensure our partnership continues to deliver in the fast changing world of
today, we need to do even more and better. To shape our priorities, we consulted
last year with people, businesses, organisations and governments of 33 countries
from across our shared region. While there was an appreciation for the results
achieved, there was also a clear expectation that we enhance our cooperation
when it comes to jobs and prosperity, investments, connectivity, good governance
and common challenges such as climate change and the digital transformation.
And now we presented our response to these consultations with long-term
objectives for our policy beyond 2020. Our continued engagement with the Eastern
Partnership countries remains a key priority for the European Union. Our
proposals for the future are ambitious yet achievable. They build on existing
cooperation but also identify areas where we need to go further. They are built
on fundamental values as the heart of the EU project, such as the rule of law,
protection of human rights and fight against corruption.
Concretely, we are proposing to our partners to work together on the following
objectives:
--Together for resilient, sustainable and integrated economies: Strengthening
the economy is key to meeting citizens’ expectations and reducing inequality and
for making our partnership a success. We will focus on job creation and economic
opportunities, through increased trade, investments, stronger connectivity, in
particular in transport and energy, and linking education, research and
innovation better with private sector needs.
--Together for accountable institutions, the rule of law and security: Good
governance and democratic institutions, the rule of law, successful
anti-corruption policies and security are essential for sustainable development
and the consolidation of democracy. They are the backbone of resilient states
and societies as well as strong economies.
--Together for environmental and climate resilience: To protect our world for
generations to come, we all need to take responsibility. The EU will work with
its partners to improve the resource-efficiency of economies, develop new green
jobs and promote local and renewable sources of energy.
--Together for a resilient digital transformation: The EU will further invest in
the digital transformation of our partners, aiming to extend the benefits of the
Digital Single Market to partner countries. Our joint work will also focus on
strengthening e-Governance, scaling up digital start-ups and supporting the
cyber resilience of partner countries.
--Together for resilient, fair and inclusive societies:Free and fair elections
together with transparent, citizen-centred and accountable public
administrations are essential for democracy. The EU will continue to focus on
these key areas, engaging with civil society, which needs to be given sufficient
space, and supporting free, plural and independent media and human rights, as
well as ensuring mobility and people-to-people contacts, all particularly
important also due to growing disinformation against EU values.
Over the past decade, trade between the EU and its eastern partners has nearly
doubled. Over 125,000 small and medium-sized businesses have directly benefitted
from EU funding, creating or sustaining more than 250,000 jobs. We are better
connected thanks to improved transport links and easier access to high capacity
broadband. And according to recent surveys, the EU is the most trusted
international institution among Eastern Partnership citizens. We will keep this
results-oriented approach and look to do much more together in the face of
today’s challenges, including when it comes to crises such as COVID-19 pandemic.
And through this we will build an even more ambitious Eastern Partnership that
delivers for all and continues to bring our shared continent closer together.
Armenian Banks Defer Loan Repayments
March 27, 2020
Armenia -- Closed shops in an underground pass in Yerevan, March 27, 2020.
Armenian banks have agreed to suspend loan repayments for tens of thousands of
individual borrowers and businesses hit hard by economic fallout from by the
coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced on Friday.
“The volume of the restructured loans is around 200 billion drams ($404
million),” Pashinian wrote on Facebook. They were borrowed by around 97,000
individuals and nearly 3,400 local firms, he said.
The Armenian government last week imposed strict restrictions on people’s
movement and ordered the closure of most firms to tackle the spread of
coronavirus. The lockdown has left scores of Armenians facing a loss of jobs and
income.
The government has faced opposition calls for imposing a blanket freeze on all
loan repayments. Pashinian rejected those calls when he spoke in the parliament
on Wednesday. He said the banks should deal with defaulting clients on a
case-by-case basis.
Pashinian also said on Wednesday that Armenia’s public utility companies have
agreed not to cut off electricity, natural gas and water supplies to people
failing to pay their bills because of the economic shutdown.
The national gas distribution network, Gazprom-Armenia, confirmed on Friday that
it will stop collecting gas fees for February at least until the state of
emergency in the country ends on April 14.
In a statement, Gazprom-Armenia put the total amount of unpaid gas bills at 4.8
billion drams. It stressed that only about 7 percent of the sum is owed by
low-income families receiving poverty benefits.
In a related development, Pashinian’s government approved on Thursday a
multimillion-dollar stimulus package designed to cushion the broader impact of
coronavirus. It includes one-off cash payments to citizens who have lost their
jobs this month as well as financial assistance or credit subsidies to
businesses and farmers. Pashinian said many banks will also benefit from the
relief.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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