On 24 March, Armenia's Deputy Prime Minister and coordinator of the state of emergency Tigran Avinyan announced a stricter regime in the country for a 7-day period, reported news.am. 

According to him, only primary services, shops, and pharmacies would work within those seven days. “The measures we have generally taken up to this point have been effective and the aim of a more stringent seven-day regime will be to maintain control and continue to develop tools that will allow us to detect and prevent infection chains,” he said.

The number of infected persons with the novel coronavirus in the country surpassed 200, with 41 new cases recorded on this day, bringing the total tally to 235. Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stressed that some of these new cases have new sources in manufacturing companies in Kotayk and Yerevan Erebuni administrative region. 

Tsarukyan critical on the government's economic aid package

Armenian businessman and leader of the opposition parliamentary faction Prosperous Armenia (BHK) Gagik Tsarukyan criticized the Armenian government’s efforts to mitigate negative economic consequences of the unprecedented health crisis. He said that he will not pay his employees who have been put on leave because of the coronavirus outbreak their wages.

“The state decided to declare a state of emergency and it must [pay] its people … like the father of a family has to give money to those who don’t work,” he said. Tsarukyan insisted that most Armenian businesses gravely affected by the coronavirus crisis cannot afford to compensate their workers for the stoppage. He claimed that the Armenian economy is already “on the brink of a precipice.”  He also dismissed an economic stimulus package unveiled by the government last week (Caucasus Watch reported), saying that it can only benefit a fraction of Armenian businesses.

According to the Head of the Department of Labor and Employment at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia Zhora Sargsyan stated that it is currently impossible to say what unemployment indicators Armenia will record as a result of the crisis. He added that there won’t be immediate changes, including layoffs, and that it will take time for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to conduct an analysis in that regard.