Armenia sees 42% drop in new COVID-19 cases

 11:08, 3 July 2023

YEREVAN, JULY 3, ARMENPRESS. COVID-19 cases have been dropping since the beginning of 2023, and although the pandemic is not over yet, the World Health Organization has reported decrease in both new cases and deaths around the world. 

A significant decrease in new cases has been reported in Armenia as well. Only 2 new cases were confirmed in the country last week.

Romella Abovyan, the Director of the Department of Epidemiology of Infectious and Non-Infectious Diseases at the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told ARMENPRESS that Armenia too is witnessing a drastic drop in new cases of COVID-19.

Abovyan said that the reproduction number (Re) of the virus is below 1, which means that the pace of spread has slowed down significantly.

The COVID 19 fatality rate in Armenia stands at 2%.

“Less testing is conducted because the situation is more stable around the world,” Abovyan said, adding that regardless of the declining rates the healthcare authorities in Armenia still require all health facilities to test patients who display symptoms of respiratory diseases.

Despite the decreasing numbers, Armenia is conducting testing more actively compared to other countries now and the 4,1% of total tests come back positive, Abovyan said.

“2 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the past seven days, compared to the nine cases of the week before. We had 11 cases in the past 14 days, and 19 cases in the same period before that, which means that we have a 42% decrease,” the expert added.