We Have Reached and Crossed the Line Beyond Which is a Hellish Situation: Nikol Pashinyan

After the meeting of the commandant's office, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that he has an obligation to tell the truth to the public about the coronavirus and everything else, no matter how harsh it may sound:

“And with bitterness I say that as of today, there are approximately 250 citizens in the republic infected with coronavirus who are waiting for hospitalization. This means that our healthcare system is currently so overloaded that we cannot accommodate patients awaiting hospitalization in hospitals. Moreover, we already have cases where a person has died from the coronavirus due to delays in medical assistance. Furthermore, the reason for that delay is twofold; the relatives delayed conveying accurate information about the patient's condition, the information was transmitted late, the reaction was also delayed, and because of that, we have recorded what may perhaps be the first death. We have had two death cases where the patient should have been in the intensive care unit, but was in a general ward due to a lack of space in the intensive care unit,” he noted.

During the meeting of the commandant's office, we approached the edge of making a decision to announce a total and unconditional lockdown. As a result of discussions, we saw that this decision would not yield the desired results and is not preferable, not only because of the serious economic consequences but also because we are convinced that this quarantine will not be kept at the quality that may lead us to the expected results.

We are dealing with the kind of non-compliance with anti-epidemic rules that if we close certain areas of Armenia right now, those non-compliance conditions will move to buildings, gatherings and parties will shift to neighbors' houses, and we will deal a blow to the backbone of the economy and will not achieve the desired result or at least, very quickly, within practically 10-15 days after lifting the lockdown, we will return to 500, 600, 700 new cases a day,” said Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.