On 29 March, the Deputy Director General of Armenia’s National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health Gayane Sahakyan stated that the situation with Covid-19 had become “complicated” in the country. 

She said there are almost no free beds in hospitals. “We have approximately 90% growth of the disease. We are waiting for over 7,000 new cases during the upcoming week,” Sahakyan said, adding that steps are taken to start vaccination from next week.

The country’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that a tightening of Covid-19 restrictions would be on the agenda following the worsening of the situation in the country. Pashinyan suggested organising work along the following lines: continued vaccination, mandatory wearing of masks, tighter control measures and improved hospital capacity. He also instructed the government officials who are in charge of Covid-19 measures to strengthen inspections, especially in closed areas and in public transport, raise the public’s awareness of the mask wearing culture and focus on the procurement of new vaccine batches.

In the meantime, the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines (around 24,000) arrived in the country. The batch was imported as part of the World Health Organization's COVAX FACILITY initiative and would be used to vaccinate health workers, those who are 65 and older, chronic patients aged 16-64, residents and workers of care centres for the elderly and employees of social guardianship. While speaking to the reporters, Russia’s ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin also assured that the first doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine would arrive soon in the country.

On the other side of things, Armenia’s Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan expressed his optimism that Armenia’s economy is growing despite the pandemic. Kerobyan reiterated his earlier forecast that the country's economy may expand as much as 10 or even more percent in 2021 in case the current pace of recovery is maintained. He also said that Armenia’s tourism sector will grow by 319% in 2021. 

In the past 24 hours, Armenia reported 750 new Covid-19 cases and 21 deaths, bringing the total tally to 191,491 cases and 3,497 deaths.

Meanwhile in Georgia, the vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine officially kicked off. In addition, the country’s Health Minister Ekatarine Tikaradze announced the arrival of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine in the country. “We expect to import the vaccine from China by the end of the week. Consequently, we will have an additional 100,000 Chinese vaccine doses approved by a strict Hungarian regulator next week. We are holding consultations with the World Health Organization on whether to wait for the WHO to approve it or start immunisation like Hungary. When the vaccine is on the ground, we will provide you with additional information,” she said.  

Tikaradze warned however that it is only a matter of time when the third wave of the virus would be announced by the country’s epidemiologists. The Director of Georgia’s National Center for Disease Control and Public Health Amiran Gamkrelidze already informed the citizens of the country that the epidemiological situation was worsening. According to Gamkrelidze, the daily positivity rate and new Covid-19 cases were alarming. He urged for intensification of control on restrictions and implementation of recommendations. He also unveiled the plans to start mass immunisation in the country from July 2021. 

Georgia’s Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani also announced that the Georgian government would provide Covid-19 vaccines to the Georgian separatist regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia). According to Zalkaliani, accessibility to the national vaccination program would alleviate difficult conditions of locals living in the separatist regions. He said that the pandemic added burden to the difficult humanitarian situation in the regions and stated that the decision was more proof that caring about locals residing the separatist territories and their involvement in different projects and programmes was important for the Georgian government. 

In the past 24 hours Georgia reported 673 new cases of the virus and 8 deaths, bringing the total tally to 281,145 cases and 3,773 deaths. 

Azerbaijan recorded the highest number of cases in a single day, moving up to 2,146 and 25 deaths and bringing the total count to 259,476 cases and 3,538 deaths. It was also reported that 536,871 people have been vaccinated against the virus so far.