Torosyan: there is no shortage of coronavirus tests in Armenia

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.