ArmInfo. There is no shortage of tests for coronavirus in Armenia. This was announced by RA Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan at a July 7 press conference.
The Minister informed that due to the strengthening of laboratory capacities, up to 2500 tests for coronavirus are carried out daily in Armenia, while previously only 300 were done. According to him, this indicator in terms of the number of tests for COVID-19 will be increased to 3 thousand over the next two three weeks. So, in Ijevan, Martuni, as well as in the capital MC "Arabkir" and "Surb Grigor Lusavorich" new laboratories will be created in which appropriate tests will be carried out. As explained by Torosyan, PCR testing is a complex process that requires appropriate equipment and personnel. He informed that in Armenia intensive retraining courses are being conducted for specialists to work with PCR tests.
The Minister emphasized that there is no shortage of tests for coronavirus in Armenia. So, about 80 thousand tests were purchased, about 60 thousand more were received as a gift. In addition, opportunities for local production of about 100 thousand tests have been created. A certain deficit can be observed in case of necessary equipment for testing. In particular, this applies to sticks used in testing, the demand for which is so high on a global scale that manufacturers themselves set certain quotas for countries. Such a situation may well lead to a certain decrease in the number of tests. Torosyan said that this issue was resolved through the purchase of 160,000 sticks from China, but this process was extremely difficult due to restrictions on air traffic and other logistics issues.
In total, 29,285 cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the republic, 16,907 people recovered, 503 died. Currently, 11711 patients are receiving actual treatment.