12:35, 6 May, 2020
YEREVAN, MAY 6, ARMENPRESS. More than 1 million people in Armenia received direct assistance from the government as part of the measures for eliminating the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak, PM Nikol Pashinyan said in parliament.
He reminded lawmakers that the government enacted 16 different anti-crisis measures.
“As a result of these we have already managed to provide concrete assistance to over 21,000 businesses by providing privileged loans. And more than 1 million people received direct assistance from the government,” he said.
Pashinyan said the first purpose of the anti-crisis action was to avoid panic, and to ensure the healthcare system’s capacity for treating coronavirus patients. The number of infectious diseases hospital beds were increased from 300 to 1500, and an additional 150 beds will be commissioned soon.
600 beds at hotel/hospitals have been prepared for asymptomatic cases.
“More than half of our cases are people who carry the coronavirus but don’t have any symptoms. And our policy for them is to simply isolate them in order to prevent transmission. We have prepared 2300 hotel beds for isolating direct contacts. Over 6000 people were isolated during this period,” Pashinyan said, adding that the authorities also prioritized safeguarding the dignity of citizens involved.
He also emphasized the rapid stabilization of the financial market, noting that unlike many other countries Armenia did not suffer a market collapse and inflation was effective managed.
Reporting by Anna Grigoryan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan