YEREVAN, MARCH 5, ARMENPRESS. The first and by far only coronavirus patient’s wife who is quarantined for already 4 days continues testing negative for the virus, Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan said at the Cabinet meeting.

He said that so far no new cases of the virus were recorded in the country and that all preventive measures continue being carried out.

“We have the one confirmed case, who is hospitalized at the Nork Infectious Diseases Hospital in Yerevan, and 31 citizens who are quarantined in special isolation conditions in Tsakhkadzor. All of them are feeling well, no one has any symptoms, including the confirmed patient. Yesterday we tested his wife, who tested negative for the disease. That is, this virus - being a contagious disease -  we see on our own practice that it isn’t highly contagious,” Torosyan said.

The patient is a 29-year-old man who traveled to Iran with his wife. His wife had tested negative once again during the first day of quarantine.

Torosyan said 161 suspected cases have been tested so far, and all results came back negative. He said the country can carry on with its normal life as the situation is under control.

PM Nikol Pashinyan asked about the quarantined citizens who are kept at the Golden Palace previously defunct hotel in the resort town of Tsakhkadzor. Pashinyan asked whether the citizens are provided with everything they need. Torosyan said the quarantined citizens have everything they need, including internet access and books to read. They will be kept in quarantine until March 14.

Torosyan said that the COVID19 infections and death rate in China is dropping. “However the situation is worsening in other countries, in South Korea, Iran, Italy, and a few hundred more cases have been confirmed in France and Germany. In Georgia and Russia the situation is better and it is expected that if European countries are able to carry out accurate measures we will see decrease in these countries two or three weeks after the peak,” he said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan