Most countermeasures globally are aimed at managing uncertainties, says Armenia COVID-19 task force

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. A potential vaccine for the coronavirus may take months, if not a year to be developed, Deputy PM Tigran Avinyan, the head of the Armenia Coronavirus Response Task Force, told lawmakers during a session after the Cabinet extended the state of emergency for 30 days.

He said there is no ultimate effective strategy in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

“It is impossible to fully eliminate the virus. The creation of a vaccine against the virus may take months, if not a year. The measures taken by countries are mostly aimed at managing the uncertainties. Societies are facing an important dilemma – to try to avoid many deaths and slow down the transmission rate in order for the healthcare system to be able to deal with the patients, at the same time inflict major damages to the economy, or, allow the rapid transmission of the virus – allowing people to develop immunity and making it possible to quickly return to the normal course of life, at the same time have great number of fatalities. The vast majority of countries are taking the first direction, by not ruling out the potential shift to the second option at any moment,” he said.

Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan