11:56, 9 April, 2020

YEREVAN, APRIL 9, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says Armenia continues maintaining “cautious optimism” over the coronavirus crisis as the transmission curve appears to be flattening.

Speaking at the Cabinet meeting, he said that more people are expected to recover or be discharged from quarantine soon.

He said tomorrow on April 10 the Coronavirus Response Task Force will meet to discuss what restrictions will continue being enforced from Monday.

“But right now the biggest challenge is that from tomorrow we must create the capacity of carrying out 1000 tests a day,” he said, adding that healthcare authorities say the number might not reach 1000 in the initial phase. He said healthcare authorities will not conduct the tests randomly and it will be done for at-risk groups. “Randomly testing people will be a waste of time and resources”, he said.

Starting April 10, all healthcare workers involved in the coronavirus response, as well as all citizens having pneumonia and other viral diseases will be mandatory tested.

So far, Armenia has conducted 4902 tests.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan