YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told his Cabinet on September 17 that he is concerned with the number of new cases of COVID-19 in the country.

The Centers for Disease Control reported 257 new cases on September 16, and 295 cases on September 17. However, this is also associated with the higher number of tests being conducted.

“Yesterday we had 4319 tests, the day before we had 4135. As a reminder, even during the most difficult phase the maximum number of tests didn’t reach 3000. But nevertheless, this trend is concerning, and I think we must draw the society’s attention on this issue. For example, yesterday, for the first time since March I saw a traffic jam in Yerevan. Perhaps this has to do with the reopening of schools,” PM Nikol Pashinyan said.

Deputy Minister of Healthcare Anahit Avanesyan also pointed out the higher number of tests.

“But we are also observing a percentage growth in the tests, today it was around 7 %, and this is concerning. As a result of our analyses we believe that this growth is associated with the pre-school period and greater movement of people, for example pre-school shopping and returning from resort homes,” Avanesyan said, adding that it will take two weeks to see how the reopening of schools will impact the epidemiological situation. Schools were reopened September 14.

Avanesyan called on citizens to strictly adhere to the coronavirus guidelines and follow safety measures.

“Statistics show that only through strictly maintaining the guidelines we can suppress the trend of growth and not have an abrupt increase of numbers in autumn,” Avanesyan added.

Face masks are mandatory in public spaces, both indoor and outdoors. 

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan