YEREVAN, June 11. /TASS/. Coronavirus cases in Armenia grew by 566 in the past twenty-four hours compared to 428 the day before, the republic’s Health Ministry reported on Thursday.
"In the past twenty-four hours, 566 new coronavirus cases were identified and 240 patients recovered from the illness. As many as 5,466 patients have recovered from the illness to date while the total number of infected individuals stands at 14,669," the ministry said in a statement.
Eighteen coronavirus patients died at Armenian hospitals in the past twenty-four hours, bringing total fatalities in the republic to 245. Yerevan hospitals conducted over 2,200 coronavirus tests in the past day and their total number reached 75,389 since the start of the pandemic in the republic, the Health Ministry’s data indicate.
The situation with the coronavirus spread in Armenia remains tense. In the past week, the republic would register from 200 to 400 new coronavirus cases daily and the total number of infections surpassed 14,600, the latest data show.
Armenia registered the first coronavirus case on March 1. On March 16, the Armenian authorities introduced a state of emergency and a strict lockdown regime. On May 18, the Armenian government lifted all economic restrictions and public transport, the subway, restaurants and shopping centers resumed operation. After the restrictions were lifted, the number of coronavirus cases grew significantly. On May 25, the Armenian authorities introduced mandatory regime of wearing face masks.
In early June, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the scope of violations of epidemiological safety standards was disastrous and the country was on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Amid these statements, he dismissed on June 8 the heads of the country’s law enforcement agencies, saying that they had failed to keep the situation under control. Armenia’s Health Ministry has said that the hospitals are swamped and hundreds of people are on the waiting lists for hospitalization.
In early June, Pashinyan announced that he and his family members had contracted the coronavirus. A week later, it was reported that all of them had recovered.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 7,471,190 people have been infected worldwide and more than 419,260 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 3,788,860 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.