Martuni Mayor Organized and Attended Daughter's Engagement Despite Testing Positive for Coronavirus

The Martuni municipality has been closed since Monday due to the mayor's infection with the coronavirus. In a conversation with Tert.am, the head of the Martuni municipality staff, Gagik Voskanian, stated that Mayor Armen Avetisyan has been infected, and the employees have been in contact with him, which is why the municipality is closed. According to him, all employees are in isolation.

In an interview with the media, Martuni Mayor Armen Avetisyan confirmed his coronavirus infection and mentioned that the Governor's Office decided to suspend the municipality's work.

Mayor Avetisyan, without waiting for the test results, participated in his daughter’s engagement ceremony. He denied rumors that 150 people attended the engagement. “The engagement was held with my family—30 people at my restaurant. At that time, I tried to protect myself from everyone knowing that I had a fever, but I didn’t have the test result yet. I held my daughter’s engagement on Friday, and the test result arrived positive on Saturday. I harmed my family, but I did not come into contact with municipality staff,” he said.

When asked how he protected himself during the engagement, he explained that he sat at a distance with his separate plate and glass. “I told everyone not to come near me until I received the test result,” he stated.

In response to the clarifying question of whether it was just him who had a fever or if his wife had it too, the Martuni mayor replied, “Everyone in our house is infected: my daughter, my son, all the others, because we were all together as a family before I even had fever. All my family members are infected, but I tried to remain cautious from the outside to avoid harming anyone; up to this moment, no municipality employee has shown any symptoms.”

He noted that all participants of the engagement are also in isolation and assured that many of them have not even been in contact with him. When asked whether he acknowledges violating anti-epidemic rules, he replied, “Absolutely, is it permissible to hold an event with 40 people?”

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