YEREVAN, JUNE 30, ARMENPRESS. Expert at the Orbeli center on Azerbaijani studies Taron Hovhannisyan is more than confident that the Azerbaijani authorities are hiding the real number of soldiers who are infected with the novel coronavirus in the army.

The expert told Armenpress that the number of COVID-19 cases in the Azerbaijani army may significantly increase together with the new conscription.

“I am more than confident that they are conducting the policy of hiding the real numbers in the army because initially they were trying to constantly state that there are no coronavirus cases in the army, but just a week ago their defense minister Zakir Hasanov announced that there are one-two coronavirus cases among the new conscripts, but before that there haven’t been any infections. However, before the conscription, there were reports about coronavirus cases registered in their army. As I am sure that Hasanov was trying to minimize the data as much as possible, the coronavirus cases must have been greatly increased together with the new conscription”, he said.

The expert also considered probable that Azerbaijan is hiding the real numbers not only in the army, but also across the Republic.

“I think that they somehow are trying to play with the statistics, given their experience in making great changes in the statistical data. In any case, based on their official statistics of the past two weeks the number of coronavirus cases has increased two times, in other words there is quite a drastic increase in the number of confirmed cases and deaths in the past 2-3 weeks. As of today the death cases comprise 198, it may be more, but they hide these cases”, Taron Hovhannisyan said.

The expert says that if the spread rate of the virus of the past one month continues to be maintained in Azerbaijan, in July the country’s healthcare system may face major problems.

“According to their official data and the research of specialists, there are signs of shortage of ventilators and hospital beds in the country. If this continues, their healthcare system may face major problems next month”, the expert on Azerbaijani studies said.

According to the official data, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Azerbaijan is 16,968. So far, 206 people have died from the virus. 9,369 patients have recovered. There are also confirmed coronavirus cases in the Azerbaijani presidential administration.

Interview by Norayr Shoghikyan
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan