Results of Coronavirus Tests on 26 Samples Kept in Laboratory are Negative

Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan wrote on his Facebook page, "Recently, there has been much discussion that the coronavirus disease has been circulating in our country since December of last year. First, I want to remind that we started testing for the new coronavirus on February 3 and received our first positive result on March 1.

Considering the importance of the issue, today I commissioned a coronavirus study to be conducted on the 26 samples we have kept in our laboratory, which were collected from our citizens with acute respiratory infections in December 2019 and January 2020. All 26 test results are negative. Therefore, we have no basis to believe that the virus was circulating in our country earlier than it was identified. There are also no grounds for such claims from an epidemiological standpoint."