On 9 July, Armenia’s acting Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan stated that a draft decision calling for the extension of quarantine in Armenia for another 6 months has already been submitted to the government. 

“I think the decision (to extend the quarantine) will be announced later today. It should definitely be extended, because the quarantine provides us with tools that enable us to apply either strict or soft restrictions. At the moment, we are not using all the possible tools provided for by the quarantine, but some of its components change over time,” she stated.

Avanesyan said that her ministry must submit a package of new restrictions by September, since no matter how good the coronavirus indicators were, traffic would increase in September in connection with the beginning of the school year. She also noted that the epidemiological situation in Armenia in the last 2-3 months has been quite good and manageable. “This is a very important achievement, and we must do everything to maintain our presence in the green zone,” she said.

The Minister also said that Armenia would acquire the American-made Johnson & Johnson’s (50,000 doses) and Novavax (about 300,000 doses) Covid-19 vaccines in autumn this year. She informed that there had an opportunity in January or February 2021 to acquire the Pfizer vaccine, precisely 15,000 doses of the vaccine for 7,500 people. However, Armenian didn’t have the respective infrastructure at the time and making an investment for such a small batch was not appropriate. “We have agreements with donor organisations that investment is needed for the complete infrastructure of preserving the conditions of this frozen chain across Armenia, which will be carried out in coming months,” she stated.

She also commented why the AstraZeneca certificates from Armenia are not recognised in EU countries due to their QR codes, saying that the problem would soon be resolved. “In Armenia, vaccination is carried out with AstraZeneca (Vaxzevria), which is used in other countries, and the EU countries recognise it – and this applies to absolutely all vaccines,” she said. 

Avanesyan also underscored that until now 97,711 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in Armenia. She said also that a study shows that the people who queue at clinics and mobile vaccination points are mostly foreigners - mainly citizens of India and Iran. In this regard, Diaspora Commissioner Zare Sinanyan said as a result Armenian citizens, including the elderly, must wait a long time in polyclinics to get vaccinated. Avanesyan noted that the vaccination policy pursued by Armenia has found a great response among foreigners. “With this in mind, the Health Ministry has made some changes deciding that from now on, polyclinics will serve only citizens of Armenia, as well as foreigners with residence permit, while other foreign citizens will be vaccinated at mobile points in the open air,” she added. 

In the past 24 hours, Armenia reported 140 new cases of the virus and 5 deaths, bringing the total tally to 226,135 cases and 4,540 deaths.

Meanwhile in Azerbaijan, the Head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Office in the country Hande Harmanci stated that the arrival of the Delta strain in Azerbaijan is inevitable. “Azerbaijan is a country with international traffic. There are laboratory conditions in Azerbaijan to determine whether Delta strain infection has been registered. However, although the Delta strain has not been identified, the rules to follow are not very different. To do this, it should be protected and vaccinated. All vaccines currently on the WHO list protect against serious illness, hospitalisation and death,” she said.

Harmanci also stated that the WHO did not see any shortage of vaccines in the country. She also spoke on the development of the tobacco vaccine by the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences member Tarlan Mammadov. “This vaccine has entered the testing phase. This means that if it is clinically tested, it may be possible to produce this vaccine in the future. It takes a long time for a vaccine to be tested on humans. In fact, it takes years, but with Covid-19 vaccines, the world was able to do it faster. Hopefully, this will be one of the vaccines that work. The more vaccines there are, the better,” she emphasised. It was also reported that Azerbaijan along with Hungary and Kyrgyzstan would assist Turkey in the third testing phase of the TURKOVAC vaccine.

In the past 24 hours, Azerbaijan reported 174 new cases of the virus and 2 deaths, bringing the total tally to 336,962 cases and 4,982 deaths. It was also reported that to this date the total number of vaccinated people in the country reached 4,015,612, with 2,437,929 receiving the first jab and 1,577,683 both jabs.