On 27 May, the “Union of Informed Citizens”, “Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor”, “Asparez Journalists Club”, “Legal Research and Development Center”, “Public Journalism Club”, “Society without Violence” and a few other NGOs issued a statement to Armenia’s government to avert the total catastrophe related to Covid-19 contagion in Armenia by enforcing a strict lockdown for two weeks. 

The organizations referred to the success of countries with a strict quarantine in place and their ability to curtail the spread of the infection in March-April and note the spike of cases in Armenia since opening up the economy on 4 May. They claim that the situation can be mitigated only through strict restrictions. They also noted that people are notwearing masks and the state does not have capacity to enforce it on all people and that some citizens are even exchanging worn masks.

The organizations warned that Armenia is approaching a pre-collapse situation in the health system with only 30 vacant emergency beds designated for Covid-19 patients. “The trends of the spike will get us to where Italy or Spain were. There will be a deficit of medical care both for Covid-19 patients and others requiring medical assistance. Per 1 [million people], Armenia ranks 5th in the ratio of infected people,” the statement emphasized.

A day later, on 28 May, Armenia recorded the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in a single day with 15 persons dying within 24 hours, breaking the negative record of the day prior which was 12 deaths in a single day. According to the official data of Armenia’s Health Ministry, the total tally of infected persons in the country is 8216 and 113 deaths.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan even stated at a cabinet meeting that the number of people in Armenia infected with Covid-19 was twice higher than indicated by official statistics. “There are now thousands of people in the country infected with coronavirus who do not even know that they are carriers of the virus. Therefore, if there are 7,000 confirmed cases in Armenia now, it means that there are 14,000 carriers of the virus in reality,” he said on 27 May, adding that the vast majority of them are asymptomatic and unaware of being carriers.