No Armenian Citizens Infected with Coronavirus in China, Says Armenian Ambassador

There are no Armenian citizens infected with the coronavirus in the territory of the People's Republic of China, stated Armenia's Ambassador to China, Sergey Manasaryan, in response to a question from Armenpress.

“Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the embassy has contacted Armenian citizens temporarily residing in China, asking them to provide their details to ensure constant communication with the embassy. Particular attention has been paid to Armenian citizens in Hubei province, which has been more severely affected by the epidemic. However, to this day, the embassy has not received any alerts regarding infection cases among citizens,” noted the ambassador.

The embassy is also in constant contact with China's migration service, which conducts separate monitoring of foreign citizens residing in the country. No information has been received from this body regarding infection cases among citizens either. Thus, we can state that no Armenian citizen has been infected with the coronavirus in China,” the ambassador said.

Addressing the question of Armenian citizens wishing to travel from China to Armenia and the possible organization of a charter flight, the ambassador mentioned that currently, the number of individuals is 10. Considering China's geography, the dispersion of our citizens, and the number of those wishing to return home, as well as the potential low load factor of the flight, the process would be somewhat illogical.

“Flights are mainly commercial in nature. It should be noted that Armenian citizens temporarily residing in China are present in almost all provinces of the country, and given its size, one can imagine their dispersion, thus the technical difficulty of gathering them in one place. Regarding those citizens who expressed a desire to return to Armenia, I must note that during the active phase of the pandemic, the embassy conducted a survey among them, but only 26 citizens expressed a desire to return home. In the passive phase of the pandemic, to date, no more than 10 people have addressed the embassy,” Manasaryan stated.