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On May 14, in accordance with Paragraph 2 of Article 120 of the RA Constitution and Article 48 of the Constitutional Law of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, special sitting of the National Assembly was convened by force of law, and the item on Extending the State of Emergency declared on 16 March 2020 in the Republic of Armenia and on Making Amendments and Addenda of the N 298-N Decision of the RA Government of 16 March 2020.

As the RA Deputy Prime Minister, the Commandant Tigran Avinyan has informed, the Government proposes to extend the state of emergency declared in the RA until 13 June 2020 at 17:00.

The Deputy Prime Minister touched upon the pandemic current situation, noted that until now 36016 persons had been tested, as a result of which 3860 cases of the infected by the Covid-19 Coronavirus disease, 1572 persons had been recovered, at this moment 2218 gets treatment, and 49 death cases had been registered.

Speaking about the actions implemented by the Government, Tigran Avinyan that in the phase of the virus entry the key measures of fight against coronavirus began before March 22: the coronavirus bearers’ discovery, the coronavirus bearers’ wide spread hospitalization, the identification and isolation of the latter’s contact circle. The Deputy Prime Minister underlined that in those days the health system had very quickly and effectively mobilized all capabilities and had been able to respond to the challenges.

The speaker has noted that our country has lived for two and a half months amid pandemic situation, and for two months in the state of emergency, and during that period numerous actions have been carried out by the Government and the Commandant’s Office: a number of tools and mechanisms have been invested for managing the situation and different regimes of lockdowns have been applied.

The Commandant has presented the logic of the actions of the fourth phase of the targeting measures designed by the Government to prevent the spread of the disease, noting that the executive body adopts a work style for the implementation of the scenario planning in strategic management conditioned by the dynamics of the coronavirus disease spread and the health system capabilities.

According to Tigran Avinyan, from May 1, the tactics of the lockdowns’ easing has been adopted, the lockdowns being applied towards the right to freedom of movement and a number of different kinds of economic activities have been removed. It is designed to completely operate the public transport from May 18, the places of the trade implementation have been reopened, the public food units will be able to render service also in the closed facilities, the gym halls and the open-air historical and cultural places will work. Taking into consideration the problem of providing the little children’s care for the working parents, the pre-schools will also open. According to the Commandant, from May 25, the wearing of masks will become compulsory not only in public closed, but also in public open places, and the police will fine people breaking the rule.

In Q & A format, the MPs voiced a number of problems related to extending the state of emergency, and Tigran Avinyan gave clarifications about them.

Covering the agenda, the NA special sitting ended its work.