Armenian health authorities seek banning autopsies on coronavirus fatalities to contain outbreak

YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian parliament is debating a government-backed bill seeking to ban autopsies of coronavirus fatalities.

Deputy Minister of Healthcare Anahit Avanesyan told lawmakers that the current autopsy services in the country are not equipped with necessary conditions and standards to carry out the procedure on the COVID19 fatalities. She said that because the level of contagiousness of the disease isn’t fully studied yet, and moreover it is still unknown for how long the disease remains active in a corpse, performing autopsy may cause severe consequences and increase the spread.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan