15:40,
YEREVAN, MARCH 29, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired a meeting of the COVID-19 Response Task Force of the Armenian government.
In his opening remarks the PM noted that the coronavirus continues to spread worldwide. “The new circumstance that has emerged is the use of the vaccines, and today we will discuss the current coronavirus situation in Armenia and our tasks, namely the vaccination policy, our agreements in terms of acquiring the vaccines and future actions,” he said.
Minister of Healthcare Anahit Avanesyan presented the epidemiological situation. She said that the cumulative total number of confirmed cases so far stands at 190741, with 172096 recoveries and 3476 fatalities, and 14287 active cases. Avanesyan presented data on the virus’ basic reproduction number, growth in new cases, the hospital beds and capacities. She said that the figures of the past one week are concerning and that the situation will get worse if no additional measures are taken.
The minister also spoke about the process of acquiring vaccines against COVID-19, and the first batch consisting of 24,000 doses of which was imported on March 28. She briefed on the work which is done for acquiring more vaccines.
“The priority actions in the direction of preventing the spread of the coronavirus were discussed at the meeting. The Prime Minister proposed to organize the work in the following directions: continuous vaccination process, increase of the level of mask wearing, heightened supervision and increase of hospital capacity. On this occasion several proposals were discussed, including in relation to acquiring other variants of vaccines. Issues related to preventive measures in educational institutions were discussed. It was emphasized that the work must be implemented based on the experience and the principles that were applied during the previous crisis periods. The Prime Minister tasked to bolster inspections, especially in enclosed areas and public transport, to continue raising awareness on face masks and to focus on the work of acquiring new batches of vaccines,” the prime minister’s office said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan