On 13 May, the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, on a live Facebook broadcast, voiced his concerns over the growing Covid-19 cases in his country and spoke on reintroducing restrictions to halt the pace of the spread. 

“The anti-epidemic conditions in our country, unfortunately, are not kept in a widespread manner. We [have] decided to resort to phased reduction of the restrictions. But you recall that we had announced that all this would be effective if we passed to a decentralized strategy to fight the coronavirus; this means that each of us must take responsibility for following certain rules. At these rates, we can face a very serious crisis,” he said. “The purpose of these restrictions will be to ensure that no citizen in need of medical care is left without medical care,” he added.

The country recorded an all-time record in Covid-19 cases on 13 May, with 180 new confirmed cases. According to Armenian epidemiologist Hasmik Ghazinyan, the number of cases and fatalities is continuing to rise rapidly because the lockdown restrictions were not strict enough and were not taken seriously by many Armenians. “The restrictions that were put in place were not really restrictions,” she said. She suggested that the failure of Armenian supermarkets’ to enforce social distancing and hygiene rules was one of the main causes of the continuing spread of the virus.

The decision to reinstate the restrictions in the country came just 9 days after the Armenian government decided to lift most of the restrictions in the country and announcing a full resumption of economic activities (Caucasus Watch reported).

The current tally of infected persons in the country stands at 3718, with 48 reported deaths.