14:52, 3 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 3, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Justice are jointly working on a legislative package concerning the law on the Protection of the Population during a State of Emergency, Justice Minister spokesperson Lusine Martirosyan told ARMENPRESS.

The legislative package’s purpose is to enable the authorities not to extend the coronavirus-related and currently active State of Emergency but still be able to implement required anti-pandemic restrictions when needed by declaring an “emergency situation”.

Martirosyan did not mention specific timeframes as to when the bill will be ready.

The Armenian government declared a national state of emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak in mid-March. Since then, the state of emergency has been extended every month.

The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan had said earlier that the authorities cannot keep extending the state of emergency forever and they need legislative amendments enabling the authorities to implement restrictions in the event of discovering new clusters of the outbreak.

Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan