Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenia’s Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan has announced that the locally-made PCR test kits are ready and the state will procure them for COVID-19 testing. Initially, the state provided financial means and necessary imported materials to the Molecular Biology Institute, a state scientific institution to develop PCR kits. “This is a major progress for health sciences and natural sciences. I want to thank the Molecular Biology Institute,” wrote Torosyan.
In the meanwhile, COVID-19 infection continues to surge in Armenia. As of morning June 24, a total 21717 confirmed cases are reported, of which almost half are treated, more than 500 have died, including 130 deaths the Ministry reports as “deaths from conditions other than COVID-19, although patients tested positive for COVID-19.” More than 100000 tests have been conducted.
The last day’s statistics shows a spike with 711 new cases, 13 deaths on top of another 12 deaths on June 22. In the past couple of days, the Center for Disease Prevention and Control has also reported a large number of cured patients totaling above 1600.
Prime Minister Pashinyan continues to call on the population to multiply alertness and precaution. “We have reached a point when we no longer have patients waiting for hospitalization at home. However, we cannot expand the health care capacities endlessly. Please remember, out of 100 newly infected people, 15 will inevitably be hospitalized, of which 2 will unfortunately die. It is up to you to stop the trend of this deadly statistics by wearing a mask, keeping a social distance and disinfecting hands,” wrote Pashinyan on his Facebook page.
In the meanwhile, Armenia continues receiving medical brigades from various countries. The second group of doctors has arrived from France, as has a group from Lithuania and Russia.