Pashinyan: The state of emergency in the country is likely to be  extended again

ArmInfo. The state of emergency  in the country is likely to be extended again. Armenian Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this during a briefing on July 7.   According to him, of course, the state of emergency cannot be  extended indefinitely, the authorities understand this, but in  today's conditions, with those indicators that are recorded in the  country, there is no other way out. At the same time, he promised to  approach this issue comprehensively.

In this context, he noted that the situation with the coronavirus  pandemic in Armenia continues to be difficult, the health system is  working in an overloaded state, and only over the weekend about 1000  new cases were recorded.

At the same time, he stated that the difficult situation is not only  in Armenia, but a similar picture is taking shape all over the world,  where the reports of a new wave of crisis come from.

Pashinyan once again repeated that it is possible to overcome a  pandemic only by radically changing the individual behavior of  citizens and it is impossible to achieve efficiency only by  administrative methods.  Recalling that 491 people were already  victims of coronavirus in the country, he again called on citizens to  comply with anti-epidemiological measures.

The head of government also noted that the authorities have a  tactical red line, which, having crossed, will have to return to  tough restrictive measures. "As soon as we feel that the health care  system is not coping, we will return to restrictions, and they will  be tougher than before, and of course, they will damage our economy,  which we would not want. In this regard, I urge our citizens to be  more responsible and observe protective measures, "said Pashinyan.

To clarify who will be responsible for the mistakes made during the  state of emergency, the prime minister noted that this question is  one of the most frequently voiced. However, he was convinced that it  was too early to look for the perpetrators and draw conclusions, as  it became clear that by the end of the year there would be no vaccine  against the virus, and most likely the rates for all states would be  about the same.  Pashinyan recalled that Armenia refused a lockdown  when up to 100 new infections were recorded in the country, and when  it became clear that 72 thousand jobs were closed in the country only  in April.  According to him, if the authorities had not taken this  step, then unemployment would have started to increase even more,  hurt the wealth of citizens.

At the same time, he stated that, of course, there are countries that  decided to bring their infected rates to zero, and only then launch  the economy, but now they cannot fully launch the economy. As an  example, he cited Spain, which had planned to completely resume the  tourist season from July 1, but was forced to abandon this  initiative.

At the same time, he added that the first lockdown in Armenia made it  possible to increase the capabilities of the healthcare system by  three times and counter the pandemic.

The Prime Minister also expressed gratitude to the Red Cross Society  for the initiative on the charity distribution of masks in Yerevan.

Recall that the state of emergency in the country was introduced on  March 16 and then was extended three times, the last time on June 13.