Armenia Reports 459 New Coronavirus Cases, 706 Recoveries and 10 Deaths

YEREVAN — Armenia has confirmed 459 new coronavirus cases on June 19, bringing the national tally to 19,157. rom the disease with the total number of recoveries now standing at 8,266.

The COVID-19 deaths have grown by 10 to 319. In addition, 9 cases of death were recorded in the past day when the patients tested positive for COVID-19, but the cause of death was another disease. The total of such cases is 110.

As many as 1,951 tests were performed in the past 24 hours.

The new coronavirus is continuing to spread in Armenia despite its government’s intensifying efforts to make people practice social distancing and wear face masks, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday.

“We are not succeeding in lowering [infection] numbers and we know the reason for that,” he said. “The reason is that the anti-epidemic rules are not widely followed, and we have to use increasingly tougher administrative methods for the purpose of [greater] compliance with the anti-epidemic rules.”

According to Pashinyan, the authorities believe that there are also “tens of thousands of asymptomatic cases” in the country of about 3 million. All Armenians should therefore treat each other as potential carriers of the virus, said the premier.

Pashinyan said that unprotected people gathering in neighborhood courtyards or visiting each other’s homes in Yerevan and other large communities are “the main source of infections.” “Here too we should step up our administrative enforcement measures even if our resources are limited,” he told ministers.

Pashinyan already announced on Tuesday that the authorities will double the number of special teams tasked with ensuring that citizens wear face masks in public and observe social distancing when queuing up outside various offices. In a related move, the government decided to require Armenians to carry passports or other IDs when leaving their homes.