YEREVAN, June 16. /TASS/. Coronavirus cases in Armenia grew by 425 in the past twenty-four hours compared to 397 the day before, the republic’s Health Ministry reported on Tuesday.
"In the past twenty-four hours, 425 new coronavirus cases were identified and 295 patients recovered from the illness. To date, 6,571 patients have recovered from the disease while the total number of the infected stands at 17,489," the ministry said in a statement.
Eight coronavirus patients died at Armenian hospitals in the past twenty-four hours, bringing fatalities to 293 since the pandemic outbreak in the republic, the ministry said.
The situation with the coronavirus spread in Armenia remains tense. In the past week, the republic registered from 200 to 600 new coronavirus cases daily.
Armenia saw the first coronavirus case on March 1. On March 16, the Armenian authorities introduced a state of emergency and a strict lockdown. These restrictions were subsequently extended to July 13. On May 18, the Armenian government lifted all economic restrictions and public transport, the subway, restaurants and shopping centers resumed their operation. After the restrictions were lifted, the number of coronavirus cases soared. On May 25, the Armenian authorities introduced the mandatory regime of wearing face masks.
In early June, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the scope of violations of epidemiological safety standards was disastrous and the country was on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Amid these statements, he dismissed on June 8 the heads of the country’s law enforcement agencies, saying that they had failed to keep the situation under control. Armenia’s Health Ministry has said that the hospitals are overcrowded and hundreds of people are on the waiting lists for hospitalization.
In early June, Pashinyan announced that he and his family members had contracted the coronavirus. A week later, it was reported that all of them had recovered.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 8,128,490 people have been infected worldwide and more than 439,420 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 4,242,200 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.