Arsen Torosyan's Remarks Distorted in Georgian Media: Armenian Ministry of Health Spokesperson

On the morning of April 10, following a press conference held by Armenian Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan, several media outlets in Georgia published articles titled "We Can No Longer Control the Spread of Virus Cases: Armenian Ministry of Health."

The articles contained part of Torosyan's remarks: "We cannot assume that the spread of the coronavirus is stopping or fading completely. Before, when we had 50 cases from one source, for instance, a factory, now we have 16, 20, or 30 cases from 10 or 20 different sources. Therefore, the circulation of the virus has, in essence, gone beyond control; however, our task is to find every possible case and continue to implement the same measures we have been doing up to now—testing, confirming, isolating, and treating."

Although the substance of the articles published by Georgian media aligns with the minister's statements, the misleading headline led to widespread discussions on Georgian social media, primarily inciting panic.

Alina Nikoghosyan, spokesperson for the Armenian Ministry of Health, stated to Alik Media: "The minister’s statement, particularly the part where he says that 'the circulation of the virus has, in essence, gone beyond control,' is not related to the number of cases and sources but rather indicates that while we previously had specific hotspots, we are now recording separate additional cases. Therefore, to say 'We can no longer control the spread of virus cases' does not reflect the reality."

As of April 9, a total of 937 confirmed cases of coronavirus had been recorded in Armenia, of which 149 individuals have recovered and 12 have died.