The government may gradually ease restrictions in a week if confirmed cases of the coronavirus decrease, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced in a Facebook live broadcast.
“I came on air to share news that may be very good news regarding the fight against the coronavirus and its course,” Pashinyan said.
On 5 April, 263 tests for the coronavirus were conducted, of which only 11 were positive. According to Pashinyan, one must wait for the data of the coming days to give a full assessment.
“This should encourage all of us to remain as strict as possible with ourselves for one more week, to maintain the restrictions, and if our assumption is borne out, it will mean that from Monday we will already have the opportunity to think about easing the regime,” the prime minister said.
The restrictions have already yielded results, according to the deputy prime minister. As Tigran Avinyan presented, the restrictions in effect since 25 March have reduced the intensity of the spread of infection, bringing the coefficient to 1.4, whereas one week before the restrictions were introduced that figure had been 2.
Avinyan explained that the coefficient of the intensity of the spread of infection shows how many people one infected person is likely to infect. If the coefficient cannot be reduced, the spread of infection develops ever more rapidly.
Health Minister Arsen Torosyan, incidentally, had published charts noting that the 7-day doubling trend is still being maintained. If confirmed cases on 28 March were 424, then a week later the figures had already doubled.
Armenia now has 853 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, of which 82 have recovered. COVID-19 has claimed 8 lives in Armenia.
