After a regular meeting of the Commandant’s Office, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a daily briefing with Head of the Bureau for the Coordination of Inspection Authorities Artur Asoyan and Head of the Neurosurgery Department at Armenia Medical Center David Patrikyan, who had been infected with COVID-19 and was discharged from the hospital after two weeks of treatment.

Nikol Pashinyan first touched upon the discussions at today's meeting of the curfew: “We have discussed several scenarios for improving the situation, including total restrictions, curfew and banning the bulk of economic activities. I myself did not back any of said scenarios, considering that we need to make sure that it can well solve the problem before making a decision. We have the presumption that the peak will come at the end of June, the issue is that we have no facts or proofs for that, no one can prove that the peak will be in June but not in October, November or even February, 2021. The pandemic runs at different paces in different parts of the globe, and there are many uncertainties in this respect,” he said.

“Let us assume that by any miracle the pandemic has declined to zero by the use of administrative levers, but it still exists in other parts of the world. And if we do not change our culture of individual behavior, preservation of hygiene, anti-pandemic rules, finally, when we open in front of the world, the potential infected people will come to our Armenia and we will start everything from the beginning,” Pashinyan said, adding that the problem must be solved with joint efforts, for which the change of individual behavior is necessary.

PM Pashinyan once again urged people to launch a large-scale anti-pandemic movement.

The Prime Minister said he believes the key to tackling the problem is to change individual behavior. “Let us assume that by any miracle the pandemic has declined to zero by the use of administrative levers, but it still exists in other parts of the world. And if we do not change our culture of individual behavior, preservation of hygiene, anti-pandemic rules, finally, when we open in front of the world, the potential infected people will come to our Armenia and we will start everything from the beginning,” the Premier pointed out.

According to the Head of Government, the fact that a decision has not been made today to return the curfew regime and restrictions does not mean that a decision will not be made tomorrow.

“Before making any decisions, we must be 100 percent sure that these decisions and the quality of their implementation will lead to certain results. In Armenia, where, to my surprise, it turned out that there is an underground life, starting with underground weddings, last calls, feasts, and with other regimes, this underground life can continue according to the same logic, and we will have the same problems,” the Prime Minister said.

Nikol Pashinyan called on everyone to start a large-scale anti-epidemic movement in Armenia, which means controlling not only our personal behavior, but also that of those around us.

“Our task is to support our healthcare system, which keeps working wonders on these days. People often come back to life from hopeless and near-to-death states. Our task is to ensure that the healthcare system’s capabilities are not exhausted. To put it more crudely: we have to get infected as much as our healthcare system can digest or otherwise as many beds and intensive care wards are available.

Indeed, we are developing these capacities, the Government will spare no effort to develop these capacities, but on the other hand, the individual behavior of each of us is the anti-epidemic movement, which must overcome this uncertain situation. I do believe in our citizens’ ability to turn mountains upside down with their behavior,” Nikol Pashinyan stated.

Head of the Bureau for Coordination of Inspection Bodies Artur Asoyan said that during this time the inspection bodies conducted more than 22 thousand inspections, as a result of which the activity of 1490 business entities was suspended.

“We carry out work with the police that produce results. Such events have already been held in the administrative districts of Davitashen, Nork Marash, Kentron, and Arabkir. We will not notify you in advance of our actions so that unscrupulous business entities are identified and held accountable for their behavior. This list includes all state institutions, for example, today we have suspended the work of public catering points operating in government houses number 1 and 3,” Asoyan said.

David Patrikyan, head of the department of neurosurgery at the Armenia Medical Center, who recently overcame a coronavirus infection, urges people not to treat the infection with contempt.

“I belonged to a risk group - hypertension, diabetes, I am 68 years old. Under these conditions, I had a coronavirus infection, I had bilateral pneumonia, I was in a very serious condition. My colleagues treated me, and thanks to them I was able to overcome the disease. This is a rather heinous disease, quietly penetrates the human body and performs its evil deed. You have to be very careful,” he said.

In turn, David Patrikyan called on citizens to abide by the applicable rules and expressed hope that as a result we will be able to overcome the epidemic by the end of this month.

“If we had fallen into the hands of this epidemic 100 years ago, half the world’s population would not have survived. Today, thanks to antibiotics, antiviral drugs and diagnostic equipment, we can find the right treatment. This deserves serious attention. Of course, in young people the disease is mild, but they infect older members of their family. Treatment of the latter is very laborious, and sometimes impossible,” the doctor said, as he presented the course of his treatment and the complications that arose.