Nikol Pashinyan on the Number of Vaccinated and Its Importance

Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan emphasized during a meeting held at the Ministry of Health that all efforts must be made to ensure vaccination becomes widespread in the Republic of Armenia.

“I don’t want to say universal, but it should be widespread. As of today, the number of citizens vaccinated against coronavirus in Armenia is just over 5,000. I want to note that this is far from a sufficient figure, and we need to at least double our daily rates and do this very quickly,” stated Pashinyan.

“Of course, on the other hand, we must not forget about the adherence to anti-epidemic rules because vaccination does not itself mean that everything is over. Vaccination means that we are given the opportunity to end all of this, and everything depends on how well we use that opportunity. Therefore, I am very pleased to note that our high-ranking state officials are setting an example with their vaccinations. I myself have also been vaccinated and can say that I have not felt any changes in my condition after the vaccination, and it’s good that I spent several hours in the National Assembly in front of the cameras afterwards. I also inquired with our other vaccinated colleagues, and none of them had any issues related to work capacity.

I again urge all our citizens. The batch of vaccines was small initially, and the aim was to vaccinate certain age groups. But now, after we have managed to acquire sufficient volumes of vaccines, every citizen over the age of 18 can be vaccinated for free.

I noticed in a discussion yesterday that not all citizens are aware that vaccinations are free. Many people often think that they have to pay for it, etc. I want to clarify that vaccinations in the Republic of Armenia are carried out free of charge, more precisely, at the expense of the state budget. In this regard, citizens have no questions concerning payment.

This information should be continuously publicized. We think that even if we said something during a government meeting, from the podium of the National Assembly, or in interviews, that becomes the property of the public; it’s not so. We need to tirelessly provide this information on a daily basis. There should be ongoing informational work.

And it is very important at this stage to respond quickly, with arguments, convincingly, and with evidence to misinformation. Because I am confident that once again, they will spread false information about horrific scenes or incidents, including for political purposes. Therefore, we must be very careful and use this opportunity to completely eliminate the anti-vaccination discourse.

Because we are talking about the coronavirus now, but even before the coronavirus, we had that issue; the continuous anti-vaccination campaigns are being conducted for unknown purposes. And experience has shown that in cases where we have implemented preventive vaccinations in proper volumes to combat diseases, we have managed to overcome those diseases, having no cases of that disease for years.

Thus, the information we deal with at work should also be presented to the public, showing the situations and demonstrating what dynamics the decreases in vaccination percentages have brought regarding diseases. This logic must make people aware and be transparent, so that there are no doubts in this regard,” said Nikol Pashinyan.