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.