‘You are contributing to the development of shadow restaurants and hotels’: Nazaryan to Avanesyan

The goal of the Armenian government is to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as much as possible, avoiding a situation where we would have to resort to widespread lockdowns. This was stated by Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan during a question-and-answer session with the government in the National Assembly, addressing the question posed by Gegham Nazaryan, a member of the 'Armenia' faction, regarding the fact that from January 22, only vaccinated citizens or those with a negative test result are allowed to visit cafes and cultural venues, while no order is established in public transportation, leading to concerns from business operators that the sectors are being devastated.

“We all understand that widespread lockdowns have a certain deterrent purpose in terms of the pandemic, but they also have significantly painful economic consequences. Therefore, the primary goal of the government is to have a balanced policy: on one hand, to protect the health and lives of citizens, and on the other hand, to ensure that these business operators do not have to bear economic losses and have visitors during certain periods,” said the minister.

Gegham Nazaryan responded by stating that the issue of visitors has long existed and is only getting worse now. “You are contributing to the flourishing of shadow restaurants and hotels, similar to what has happened in Italy and France. You have not deemed it necessary to study European experiences to understand that the restrictions had no effect on the spread of the different strains of the coronavirus,” the lawmaker noted.

The lawmaker also added that until now, people have not been reimbursed for their PCR test expenses. Anahit Avanesyan stated that the constitutional court decision simply means that a citizen can conduct their PCR test using another citizen's account.