Six Isolated Residents of Stepanavan are Ambulance Workers

Andrey Ghukasian, the governor of Lori province, announced on his Facebook page today that the number of coronavirus carriers in the region has reached five, noting that the circle of contacts of the infected individuals has been identified and all are in isolation. This was reported by hetq.am.

"A few days ago, it became clear that one of the infected is a 70-year-old resident of Stepanavan who recently returned from Moscow. She is currently at the 'Norq' Infectious Diseases Hospital. Karen Malakhyan, an epidemiologist at the Stepanavan Medical Center, mentioned in a phone conversation with Hetq that at this moment, 18 individuals have been isolated, six of whom are ambulance service employees. All of them are isolated at a rest house in Aghavnadzor, named after Khachatur Abovyan. According to Malakhyan, all had direct contact with a patient infected with the coronavirus. They will undergo a coronavirus test 14 days after the isolation date," he said.

According to the source, there are currently self-isolated individuals in Stepanavan and nearby villages, whom employees of the Stepanavan medical center are regularly monitoring and testing. "Their number at this moment is 23, some of whom have just arrived from Russia and Turkey. Since the declaration of emergency, the total number of those isolated and self-isolated has reached around 80. Malakhyan, however, notes that the medical center can only learn about a possible carrier when an ambulance call is registered and suggests that to fight more effectively, relevant authorities should inform medical centers about citizens arriving from airports so that the health facilities can prepare for possible cases," he added.

To verify the information, hetq.am also attempted to contact the emergency management team, but all attempts were unsuccessful, as none of the operators responded to the calls.