Armenia: State of Emergency Guidelines

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan wrote on his Facebook page that to avoid direct contact and stop the spread of the virus, police have been instructed to not touch ID cards and the standardized form that all citizens are required to have when leaving the house, but rather ask the citizens to show the documents to the officers themselves.

Avinyan also said that there is now the online version of the standardized form, available at https://ac19.am/app/mobility. After users fill in the required information, an electronic document will be generated, which will not be possible to edit later.

Armen Harutyunyan, the Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations (MES) and Vrej Gabrielyan of the Ministry’s Rescue Service gave a press conference this evening.

The Deputy Minister said that since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the MES has been closely working with the Ministry of Health. The National Crisis Management Center of the Rescue Service of MES has received over 500 calls from citizens, all of which were related to coronavirus. He went on to say that the buses and ambulances belonging to the Ministry, were used to transfer and quarantine over 400 people.

Harutyunyan said that the Ministry had been carrying out targeted disinfection operations, however, starting from 6 a.m. tomorrow, they will carry out disinfection/decontamination operations throughout the entire country. The Deputy Minister said that for the past two months, they have been working on a 24-hour schedule and they are no longer limited to their mandate, that is, they are ready and prepared to step in to assist in any way possible. He urged everyone to follow the instructions by the Ministry of Health.

Gabrielyan spoke about the measures the Rescue Service has taken to ensure the protection of First Responders and everyone they come into contact with.He said that one of the first responders has tested positive for COVID-19 and that he had contracted the infection from his wife, who in turn had contracted the virus from one of the secondary infection clusters in the country. Gabrielyan said that contact tracing has been done and all those people are now quarantined at a premise under their jurisdiction to spare the Ministry of Health of additional burden.

Six employees of the Ministry are currently in self-isolation because they had come into contact with people outside the Ministry, who were infected. “We are constantly monitoring the contact spheres of our employees to try and prevent a possible infection within the ranks,” Gabrielyan said. “Even on their days off, employees are monitored.”

The Ministry already has 15,000 units of different kinds of protective gear for the protection of their employees.

During a press conference, Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan answered reporters’ questions regarding the current COVID-19 situation in Armenia. Torosyan clarified that the assertion that children are considered to be less vulnerable to coronavirus applies only to children without other pre-existing conditions, compromised immune systems or currently undergoing treatment. Children in these categories are also among the vulnerable groups. Thus, it is very important that everyone, regardless of their age group, follow the basic guidelines provided by healthcare professionals, such as avoiding crowded places, maintaining social distance and regularly washing hands. He urged citizens to follow those requirements, at least until the outbreak starts to slow down or a vaccine is developed.

Speaking about the medical personnel working in three hospitals, where patients infected with coronavirus are being treated, Torosyan said that the Ministry is doing everything to ensure they are supported, including organizing their transportation to and from hospitals and providing food. He said that some of the doctors have decided to stay in hotels so as not to compromise the health of their family members. The Ministry is covering these expenses. The Ministry has also trained about 50 doctors, so that they can provide services in other hospitals as well or provide relief for the overworked doctors.

Torosyan also said that Armenia has sufficient PCR tests and continues to acquire new ones. As of today, 1440 people have been tested for COVID-19, with 290 coming back positive. Torosyan promised that, in the coming days, the Ministry will also provide information about the number of confirmed cases in every region of Armenia. He also reminded reporters that tests are being conducted only by the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, headquartered in Yerevan, which has the capacity, the required safety standards and the resources to conduct them. Three of the Center’s branches, in Gyumri, Vanadzor and Kapan, which are in compliance with the required standards have also conducted tests. The Minister noted that the tests are not fully reliable and their efficiency has not been completely determined.

Speaking about the spread of the virus in Shirak, Lori and Kotayk regions, Torosyan explained that, in some cases, residents of those regions became carriers of the infection while they were travelling abroad, while in other cases, residents were infected locally (from other citizens of Armenia). The Minister also said that determining the scope of the infected citizens’ affected contacts is an ongoing process. In some cases, it takes longer because citizens are not willing to cooperate with the authorities (for reasons unknown to Torosyan). So far, most of the cases were registered in Yerevan, Armavir, Ararat and Kotayk regions.

Hydroxychloroquine is among the drugs that world health experts claim can be effective in treating COVID-19. Although further clinical studies are required to fully determine its effectiveness, Torosyan said that some of the patients have been treated with this drug for the past three days. He said that the drug is given to patients in critical condition. The Minister also stated that one doctor and one ambulance driver have been infected with coronavirus (earlier, one nurse had also tested positive). Speaking about the cases that were confirmed in two factories based in Erebuni and Charentsavan, Torosyan said that several hundred people were quarantined from these two infection hubs.

According to a March 26 Government decision, a number of measures will be initiated to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic for businesses.

Assistance will be provided:

– To families with underage children who are struggling due to the difficulties in the labor market caused by the spread of the coronavirus. The one-time assistance will be in the sum of the minimum monthly wage for each underage child.

– To ease/mitigate current liquidity risks for agricultural enterprises, co-financing of targeted loans will be provided in the form of interest subsidies.

– To mitigate current liquidity risks of businesses, co-financing, refinancing and interest subsidies on targeted loans from lending institutions.

– To provide individual businesses who are suffering in the current situation, with a one time assistance grant to help preserve jobs.

– To mitigate current liquidity risks for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Areas of operation include: manufacturing, accommodation and catering, transportation and warehouse/storage facilities, service and tourism and other services.

Support is provided to businesses through the Investment Support Center.

During today’s Government session, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenia has 290 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Two patients, both over the age of 75, are in critical condition and being treated in intensive care, one of them is a US citizen. There have been 18 cases of recovery and about 100 citizens have been released from quarantine without ever testing positive. The number of recoveries and releases is expected to begin increasing as many reach the end of their 14-day isolation period.

Pashinyan noted the importance of effectively managing healthcare facility resources. There are patients occupying hospital beds today who do not require any treatment. “These are light cases who tested positive for COVID-19 and their hospitalization is not justified.” Pashinyan had a discussion in the morning with Special Commissioner Tigran Avinyan and Health Minister Arsen Torosyan, where they decided that the government will try to collaborate with hotels to move these light case patients (who make up the majority) there and provide them with food and other needs. Currently, many hotels are virtually empty. Pashinyan said that he understands that some hotels might be reluctant to collaborate over worries about the future of their brand but they may have already hosted infected guests anyway and are obliged to disinfect their rooms regardless.

Torosyan confirmed that the health ministry will oversee that the rooms are properly disinfected. Torosyan said that the procedure is already in place, as the rooms used by people in quarantine who test positive are already thoroughly disinfected before another person can use that room.

Pashinyan pointed out that the state of emergency authorized the government to require compliance but that he would rather negotiate with the hotels, in keeping with the government’s objective of minimizing the impact on business.

Pashinyan repeated the health minister’s assertion that Armenia’s pandemic situation is still at a manageable level. “We see that the numbers are growing astronomically in other countries. We thank God we do not have astronomical numbers for the time being; though our numbers continue to increase. To keep the situation under control, it is imperative that we enforce this week’s regime of mandated self-isolation.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Special Commissioner Tigran Avinyan presented statistics for public transportation use in Yerevan. He said that during March and April 2019, there were an average of 550,000 rides/day. The number for March 25, 2020 came in at 18,000 rides/day, a reduction of 97%. Avinyan said the picture is similar outside Yerevan. Avinyan said people are generally abiding by the restrictions, even though some violations were registered by police yesterday. Avinyan underscored that these restrictions have been put in place to stop the spread of the virus and the government is using this time to re-equip and improve the preventative measures in place. He was optimistic that, if today’s dynamic is maintained, the seven day period will suffice and the government will be able to lift the heavy restrictions on movement. Avinyan called on the owners and managers of hotels and guest houses who are interested in collaborating to get in touch with the tourism committee and submit their price quotes.

Police Chief Arman Sargsyan

By 8:30 a.m. on the morning of March 26, 286 administrative violations of the nationwide lockdown were registered, with 60 citizens taken to police stations; 685 cars received warnings for having more than two occupants. Nine drivers of  public transportation vehicles have been fined for taking on more passengers than their vehicle’s seating capacity.

Pashinyan also talked about the parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled to take place in Artsakh on March 31, for which groups of election observers were scheduled to arrive from Armenia. Pashinyan concluded that, since Armenia now has rapid tests, all observers going from Armenia should be tested and that any of the observers from high-risk areas should be replaced. Artsakh still has zero cases of COVID-19 and everything should be done to keep it that way, said Pashinyan.

During a press conference, Deputy Police Chief Hayk Mhryan and Head of the Department for Drafting Anti-Corruption and Penitentiary Policies of the Ministry of Justice Arpine Sargsyan spoke about the stricter restrictions imposed on peoples’ free movement and the administrative fines that can be imposed if people violate those restrictions.
Mhryan reminded everyone that as of midnight last night, people are required to self-isolate and that the police will be closely following the enforcement of the restrictions. Police officers already started urging citizens to follow the requirements of the Special Commission. Mhryan also clarified that the decision of the Commission mentions the types of business entities/organizations that are allowed to continue their operations during the time of emergency, and what documents people should have when leaving the house. The Deputy Chief of Police expressed hope that police forces will be able to guarantee the enforcement of the Commission’s requirements.

When answering reporters’ questions, Mhryan also clarified that journalists are not required to have the standardized form with them when leaving the house, if they have a reporter ID. So far, police have asked 96 people to get out of a car, because they were violating the Commission’s decision, which says that a maximum of two people are allowed to be in the same car. He went on to say that people need time to adjust to the new restrictions that police forces will start enforcing the requirements more strictly starting from 16:00 today.

Speaking of restrictions from the perspective of administrative and criminal offences, Arpine Sargsyan said that parliament on March 23 already approved, in the second and final reading, the amendments and changes to the Code of Administrative Violations and the Criminal Code proposed by the Justice Ministry. These amendments aim to regulate:

1) Noncompliance with media restrictions and the corresponding administrative fines. The text initially referenced mass media outlets but since the one bearing responsibility should be the individual disseminating non-official information, the wording has been amended. The fine has been set at 100 to 300 times the minimum wage. The amendment also foresees situations when after being fined, the outlet or individual refuses to take down the information, in such cases there will be a fine from 500 to 1000 times the minimum wage.
2) Taking into consideration the restriction on free movement during the state of emergency, the amended law also foresees fines for noncompliance with the rules of isolation, self-isolation and movement. In this case, there is also a fine from 100 to 250 times the minimum wage.

Not to encounter problems in the future, lawmakers have clearly defined isolation and self-isolation.

The above mentioned are for cases that have not led to consequences. If cases when noncompliance with the rules has led to certain consequences, for example, infecting others. In such cases the person will be charged with criminal responsibility.

• The person has intentionally caused considerable harm to someone else’s health
•  and/or has infected two and more people or
•  the person’s actions have led to someone’s death.

Regarding concerns with the condition of prisoners, Aprine Sargsyan said that taking into consideration the specificity of penitentiaries, the Special Commission has established regulations that aim to protect both prisoners and their families. All physical visits are prohibited, however, video calls will be allowed to ensure that the rights of prisoners to connect with the outside world is not infringed upon. The government has also prohibited the delivery of parcels to prisons as it could potentially cause the spread of the virus. Additionally, religious services for the prison population are also banned.

Sargsyan said that prisons are being disinfected regularly including the administrative wings as well as the prison cells and everyone’s temperature is regularly monitored. Information sessions have also been organized about the sanitary hygienic preventative measures, social distancing, etc. A number of prisoners have been tested for COVID-19, but all  results have so far been negative.

– 14 COVID-19 patients have recovered; 12 of the 14 who were quarantined never exhibited any symptoms and were never hospitalized; the other two were being treated at the Nork Infection Clinical Hospital (announced earlier today).

– Another two patients at the Nork Infection Hospital have tested negative and will be released tomorrow after repeated tests confirm the negative results.

– Eight citizens have been released from quarantine, 37 of the 88 were in self-isolation in their building (announced earlier today), 51 people were quarantined at a designated facility.

– 14 COVID-19 patients have recovered; 12 of the 14 who were quarantined never exhibited any symptoms and were never hospitalized; the other two were being treated at the Nork Infection Clinical Hospital (announced earlier today).

– Another two patients at the Nork Infection Hospital have tested negative and will be released tomorrow after repeated tests confirm the negative results.

– Eight citizens have been released from quarantine, 37 of the 88 were in self-isolation in their building (announced earlier today), 51 people were quarantined at a designated facility.

8 p.m. During a press conference, Suren Krmoyan, adviser to Deputy Prime Minister and Warden of the Special Commission Tigran Avinyan spoke about the restrictions imposed by the March 24 decision of the Commission, limiting people’s right to free movement throughout the territory of Armenia. The decision will come into force this evening at 23:59. Accordingly, people are required to self-isolate and leave their homes only in three exceptional cases, as specified by the decision:

1) To go to the supermarket (or local grocery store); the pharmacy; to attend a funeral or take care of someone else;
2) To do physical exercise/activities in their neighborhood;
3) To go to work, if a person works for a business/organization whose activities have not been temporarily suspended by law.

These restrictions apply to both citizens of Armenia, as well as foreign nationals.

All those leaving their homes are required to fill out a standardized form about their movement (adopted as part of the decision by the Commission) and have it with their passport. All those people going  to work are also required to fill out the standardized form, which should have your full name, the time you left the house, your address, the address of your destination, as well as the time of leaving and returning back. Starting tomorrow, police officers will be monitoring the movement of people throughout the territory of the Republic and will be allowed to stop people and ask to see the required documents, and if necessary, apply the measures, specified by law. The standardized form does not need to be printed, citizens are free to have it hand-written and signed. People can download the standardized form from the gov.am website.

According to the March 24 decision (decision N.15) by the Special Commission, which imposes restrictions on public service, public authorities are required to work remotely, when and if possible. Additionally, offices providing services to state bodies will also not be working, and citizens should not physically go to state bodies with their requests. All state bodies that will not be working in the following week, are required to provide contact information, so that people with urgent requests can contact them.

The Government has also launched covid19.gov.am platform (the standardized form will be available here as well), where updated information about coronavirus developments, decisions by the Special Commission, and travel restrictions will be regularly posted. Later, Deputy PM Tigran Avinyan will also provide information about the mobile app that has already been launched that will allow citizens to contact health authorities and by answering some questions, get a preliminary assessment of their health status online. The app was provided to Armenia by Iran and was adopted to Armenia’s needs.

Jora Sargsyan, Head of the Labor and Employment Agency at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs held a press conference earlier today. Speaking of stipulations in the labor law that regulate employee-employer relations, Sargsyan said that Article 107 of the Labor Code regulates situations when an employee is left idle not by his/her fault, and in those circumstances, how the payment system should work. The law stipulates that in similar cases, the employer has the right to modify the employee’s responsibilities according to their profession. In instances when this is not viable, the law stipulates that the employer should compensate the employee in the amount of the minimum hourly wage.

However, another article of the Labor Code, Article 186.6 references cases where there are unforeseen circumstances that cannot be overcome (force majeure). In these cases, the employer is not required to compensate the employee. Taking into consideration that there are certain discrepancies between these two articles of the Labor Code, Sargyan said that the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is working on a draft law, which is still in the discussion stage, to regulate the situation during the state of emergency.

Some of the proposed regulations in the draft amendments to the Labor Code are the following:

As Armenia’s labor code does not mention or regulate remote working (Article 98 of the Code does refer to working from home, however, it refers to instances when it is initially agreed upon between the employer and employee.) And since remote working is when employees, due to a given circumstance, are obliged to change the place of their work. The draft amendments stipulate that:

– If the nature of the work or the hours do not change, payment should be made in full.

– A change in the location and regimen of employment, in essence, is a change in the service contract between the employee and the employer, which the current law stipulates should be agreed upon ahead of time. Given the circumstance, the draft law suggests to forgo the given stipulation of the Labor Code and not fine the employer in case of non-compliance (giving prior notice). According to Sargsyan, the proposed regulation is meant to give the employer flexibility to more freely adjust the work schedule or hours the employee is expected to put in.

The current Labor Code allows the employer to fire an employee for unjustified absence or for being late; amendments to the Labor Code will see this stipulation amended for the duration of the state of emergency.

For the duration of the state of emergency, employees with school children who have to stay home because schools are closed, cannot be fined, have their salaries reduced or be fired for being late or not going to work. In cases when the employer is able to offer full employment and the employee is unable to go to work or is late, then the employee is paid according to the hours they put in at the physical place of employment.

In cases when the employee is late up to two hours because of the closure of academic institutions in the country, then for the duration of the state of emergency, they are paid in full. If the parent is late more than two hours, then they will be paid as per the hours they put in. These stipulations are for parents with children up to 14 years of age.

In cases when overtime is required, the current law stipulates that overtime cannot be more than four hours in two consecutive days. For the duration of the state of emergency the draft law suggests raising this time from four to eight hours.

In cases when the work in not possible to do either from the place of employment or remotely,

if the employee has paid vacation days, the draft law encourages the employee to use them in this period. According to Sargsyan, this is to free the employer from financial burden and to later give them the opportunity to get back to work in full capacity after the state of emergency is lifted.

Replying to a question about employers forcing employees to take unpaid leave, Sargsyan said that according to the Labor Code, with the exception of a few instances mentioned in the law, when in employer is obliged to grant the employee and unpaid leave, there generally needs to be a two sided agreement between the employer and the employee for unpaid leave (up to 60 days), it can not be a one-sided decision. As such, according to Sargsyan, the employer can not force the employee to be on unpaid leave.

A sitting of the Special Commission convened today to discuss further restrictions in the country. Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said that for the next seven days, only services and shops of primary importance, and pharmacies will be allowed to operate in the country. Avinyan said: “Measures we have taken have so far been effective and the purpose of resorting to seven days of stricter regulations is to continue being able to maintain supervision and to continue to develop the tools which will allow us to detect and prevent the spread of the infection.” The Deputy Prime Minister also announced that there will be restrictions on movement for Armenian citizens and that everyone must continue self-isolating.

During a press conference, the Chairman of the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition, Gegham Gevorgyan spoke about the availability of food and other essential products in Armenia. He noted that currently there is no shortage of these products and that imports are being conducted as scheduled through the Upper Lars (Russia-Georgia) checkpoint, which is open now for cargo transportation. He urged citizens to avoid doing unnecessary shopping and said that monitoring conducted by the Commission has shown that purchases in major supermarkets has fallen in the last few days.

Speaking about the availability of medicinal alcohol and hand sanitizer (alcogel), Gevorgyan noted these two products are available in all of the major pharmacies in Armenia. He went on to say that because of the fluctuations of the U.S. dollar, the price of medicinal alcohol has slightly increased, the fluctuations did not affect the price of hand sanitizers. Similar to food products, the demand for hand sanitizers, when coronavirus just started spreading, was much higher than now (because people unnecessarily bought much).

The Commission also conducted product price monitoring from February 26 to March 23 to make sure that any price increase is justified and is connected with fluctuations of the U.S. dollar ($1 increased from 478 AMD to 495 AMD within the mentioned period) and Russian ruble (₽1 decreased from 7.3 to 6.1 within the mentioned period). Although monitoring of agricultural products does not fall into the Commission’s scope of responsibilities, taking into account public interest and demand, they conducted monitoring of agricultural products as well. Gevorgyan explained that because March is the month of agricultural greenhouse products, the Commission recorded price increases of certain agricultural products, such as tomato and cucumber (which was the case every year). Lentil, rice, buckwheat, oil, butter, sausage, milk, sour cream are also among the products that have been monitored between February 26 and March 23, and major price increases have not been recorded. Flour is among the products that the Commission has received complaints about from citizens, and the Commission has been in contact with major producers, who clarified that the price change is primarily connected with the increase of wheat price.

Speaking about medical masks, Gevorgyan noted that the market of medical masks worldwide is very unstable and because Armenia does not produce them locally, any increase is being reflected in the price of medical masks sold at pharmacies.

During a press conference, Deputy Chief of Police Hayk Mhryan said that the police have been working in a number of directions, in two stages. The first stage, which started on February 23, was escorting Iranian cargo trucks from the Armenia-Iran border checkpoint to the required terminal destination. Mhryan said that their mission was to ensure Iranian truck drivers did not come into contact with Armenian citizens. Police officers have escorted around 459 trucks. The other area of their work was helping to quarantine potential COVID-19 carriers in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Police forces were involved in the quarantining at the Golden Palace Hotel (in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor), the Nork Infectious Clinical Hospital, the 75-person staff of the Armenian Aeronautic Aviation Company (Հայաէրոնավիգացիա ՓԲԸ) in their building on the grounds of Zvartnots International Airport and the quarantine of the Renco staff (the factory in Yerevan). Police have been permanently supervising the grounds of all the quarantine sites.

The second stage began after the government imposed a state of emergency in the country. As a result, their permanent supervision of quarantine sites increased with an additional ten posts, all posts work 24/7. “In addition, we also patrol citizens who are in self-isolation. This is done through keeping in telephone contact with them,” Mhryan said. “After we receive the information from the Ministry of Health, we call each one every four hours and if there are health concerns, we immediately notify the Health Ministry.” The lists are updated daily in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Police also implemented the shut down of the city of Etchmiadzin, with 28 checkpoints, three of them being controlled checkpoints and the remaining 25 patrol stations forbidding any movement. Any citizen found to have high temperature by the checkpoint staff was instructed to return home, the data added to the list and the person later remained under surveillance.

The Special Commission on the state of emergency has also tasked the police to work with local self-government bodies to identify businesses organizing funerals, to make sure that the number of people attending funerals does not exceed 20. So far, police have sent 1351 notifications to entertainment and funeral centers. As of March 22, 115 funeral services were held in accordance with the set rules. The police also sent notifications to those businesses whose activities are temporarily suspended in accordance with the regulations set out by the state of emergency Commission.

Police are also working with those media outlets and social media users, who have posted information about coronavirus developments in the country that contradict official information. To date, police have asked 22 media outlets to take down contradictory posts.

The Deputy Chief of Police also said they are closely following the guidelines aimed at preventing the spread of the virus and that the temperature of those working in the police force is checked daily. Those who have temperatures must self-isolate. All police cars and stations are being disinfected, police officers are also required to carry disinfectants and protective gear. Some police officers have been tested, there is one officer in self-isolation with his family.
The police will also implement the amendments and changes to the Code of Administrative Violations and the Criminal Code adopted by parliament earlier today.

Starting March 20, the police are implementing stricter surveillance on public transport to make sure there is no overcrowding. On March 20 alone, more than 70 cases of overcrowding in public transport were registered.

The government has decided to restrict the export of a number of medical supplies from the Republic of Armenia. The export of medical supplies will be allowed by the State Revenue Committee only on the basis of a written consent by the Ministry of Health. The decision also extends to medical supplies that are at the customs clearance stage and all supplies have already been cleared for export up until the date of the decision.

During a session of government, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that their goal is not only to restore the economy to its pre-crisis position, but move forward with bigger ambitions in the post-crisis environment. “This is what informs the logic of our actions,” he noted adding that they will implement development projects, injecting support into the economy, while perhaps also concentrating on the reform agenda which was already adopted. “Of course, this crisis will also reveal certain social challenges and we will initiate a response to address those social challenges,” he said, emphasizing that it is important that those social programs are effective, fair and directed to the appropriate people in need.

Pashinyan said the economic assistance program should not be “humanitarian assistance” to the economy but rather a chance for the economy to develop and increase its competitiveness and any program that falls short of those goals will not be of interest to the government. “The government will not give into panic, the government will not make emotional, uncalculated decisions, the government will double check each of its decisions to make sure they serve a development purpose,” said Pashinyan. “In this restructured world, Armenia should present itself with a new image.”

At this stage, an emergency package of approximately 25 billion AMD funds will go to support businesses. Another package of 25 billion AMD will be designated for social assistance programs, to be used as needed. Approximately 80 billion AMD will be placed in a foundation, which will be aimed at restructuring the economy in accordance with the post-crisis situation.

Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan presented the economic aid package. He said that the plan is to create “financial cushions” to support businesses through times of irregular consumption in order to mitigate potential losses. A number of credit programs have been designed, that include:

1 – Co-financing of credit; 

2 – Refinancing of credit; 

3 – Interest rate subsidization. 

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, this will allow businesses to remain in a “holding position,” not be weighed down by interest payments, navigate currency fluctuation risks, keep their employees and be able to take care of utility expenses.

Speaking of food supplies in the country, the Prime Minister said Armenia has more than enough supplies. He presented the numbers from two days ago and said he also has information that a large number of products are still being imported (e.g. 18 tons of cooking oil, 220 tons of sugar, 145 tons of wheat, 20 tons of chickpeas, frozen meat, etc.)

Relevant government members provided further information about the current availability of other goods:

• Sugar: sufficient for 201 days 

• Chicken meat: 64 days
• Oil: 38 days
• Diesel: 45 days 
• Gasoline: three month supply 
• Medicinal alcohol: daily production of 11 tons 
• Wheat and flour: in sufficient supply, no need for new purchases
• Agricultural greenhouse produce (e.g. tomatoes and cucumbers): in sufficient supply with large producers. If there is an increase in demand, the Special Commission has the right to ask the producer to stop exports and direct the produce to the domestic market.  

The State Commission implementing and overseeing the state of emergency, issued the following statement:

The government of Armenia declared a state of emergency applicable to the entirety of the country starting from March 16 until April 14. We call on everyone to unconditionally follow the decisions and instructions of the government and the subsequent decisions of the Special Commission and the instructions of relevant institutions.

At the same time we would like to remind you that Article 182.3 of the RA Code on Administrative Offenses establishes responsibility for violating the rules of the state of emergency.

Namely:

• Violation of the laws of entry and exit into or from the area under a state of emergency is punishable by a fine equivalent to 50 to 70 times the minimum wage.

• Violation of the provisional directive (special order) on the sale, acquisition and turnover of foodstuffs and essentials established by the Government of the Republic of Armenia during the state of emergency is punishable by a fine ranging from one hundred to three hundred times the minimum wage.

• Violation of law on prohibition of strikes and noncompliance with measures/decisions to suspend or terminate the activities of legal entities during a state of emergency is punishable by a fine equivalent to 50 to 200 times the minimum wage.

• Violation of the restrictions on the movement of vehicles and impeding their inspection during a state of emergency is punishable by a fine equivalent to 50 to 100 times the minimum wage.

• Mass media publications, reports that do not comply with the requirements of the state of emergency, are punishable by a fine equivalent to 500 to 800 times the minimum wage.