15:35,

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. The government of Armenia has allocated 90,000,000 drams to the high tech ministry for it to provide the funds as a grant to the Engineering Association NGO to launch the manufacturing of ventilators.

The High Tech Ministry had accepted around 300 bids and proposals in a call for designs and research of ventilator productions.

The production is expected to begin in 4-6 months with an output of 40-50 devices in a month.

Speaking about the possibility of the coronavirus pandemic dying out sooner, healthcare minister Arsen Torosyan said even if that were to happen the healthcare system will still need the ventilators for other patients.  

Deputy PM Tigran Avinyan admitted that the project is risky in terms of spending public funds on something they aren’t sure will bring the expected results, but called it a “justified risk”.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan