YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS. The COVID-19 epidemiological situation remains tense in Armenia despite a decrease in the number of new cases, a senior healthcare official said Monday.

“We have 40-50% drop of new cases, and today the virus reproduction rate is below 1, around 0,5-0,6”, the CDC Director of the Department of Epidemiology of Infectious and Non-Infectious Diseases Romella Abovyan said at a press conference. “But I have to note that this is due to the holidays in educational institutions two weeks ago and in some cases remote education. That decision was aimed at reducing personal contacts, and during that period public transport worked without overloads, there were little mass gatherings which led to a drop of the numbers,” she said.

As in-person classes have already resumed, Abovyan called for maintaining the safety guidelines such as wearing masks, physical distancing and frequent hand-washing or sanitizing. But at the same time, Abovyan again prioritized vaccination as an important effective method.

Abovyan noted that although the vaccination pace is proceeding rather efficiently, health authorities are still planning to change the current regulation and require the unvaccinated employed citizens to get tested for COVID-19 every week instead of every 14 days starting December 1. 

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan