YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan interrupted his vacation and suspended rallies in an ongoing constitutional referendum campaign for at least one day late on Thursday, March 12, after authorities confirmed two more coronavirus cases, with the total number of patients in the country thus rising to six.
Armenian Health Minister Arsen Torosyan said in a Facebook post earlier today that both identified patients had been taken to an infectious diseases hospital in Yerevan.
“The two are from among those who had been in close contact with the coronavirus patient from Echmiadzin [a woman who had arrived from Italy]. They were isolated yesterday evening. They had fever and later tested positive for coronavirus. At this moment they feel well and have no fever,” Torosyan wrote.
Three coronavirus patients identified in Armenia on March 11 had come from Italy – two of them are citizens of Armenia and one is an Italian working in Armenia.
The first coronavirus patient identified in Armenia on March 1 was an Armenian citizen evacuated from Iran.
In a live broadcast on Facebook Pashinyan announced that his government will hold consultations on Friday to “fully assess the situation.”
