We Have No Basis to Assume That the Virus Circulated in Our Country Earlier Than It Was Discovered: Torosyan

The Minister of Health of the Republic of Armenia, Arsen Torosyan, made a post on his Facebook page, stating:

“In recent days, there has been much talk that the coronavirus disease has been circulating in our country since December of last year. First, I want to remind you that we began testing for the new coronavirus on February 3, and we received the first positive response on March 1. Considering the importance of this matter, I have today instructed our laboratory to conduct coronavirus testing on 26 samples that were taken 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 assume that the virus circulated in our country earlier than it was discovered. There are no such grounds from an epidemiological perspective either.”