International post stopped in Azerbaijan
On 16 March, the Azerbaijnani Ministry of Transport and Communications and High Technologies stopped the sending and receiving of international mail to the country in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.
The Azerbaijani parliamentarians proposed amendments to the laws in order to impose a fine on individuals from 10 to 500 manats for violating the quarantine regime, officials from 1,500 to 2,000 manats and legal entities from 2,000 to 5,000 manats. For some type of violation, it is proposed to introduce an arrest for one month. Amendments to the law on "Suspension of inspections in private medical institutions in the field of entrepreneurship," were also made.
The Ministry of Taxes appealed to citizens about the temporary procedure for considering applications for registration of commercial legal entities. The provisional procedure introduced in order to avoid the spread of the coronavirus provides for the cancellation of full-time registration.
According to the chairman of the Administrative Board of Azerbaijan’s Management Union of Medical Territorial Units (TABIB) Ramin Bayramli, there is no need to impose a state of emergency in the country as some states already did. “The spread intensity of the infection and our control on it today do not give ground for it absolutely. Several European countries have declared a state of emergency, but the intensity of the coronavirus in Azerbaijan is not at that level, that is why there is no need for it,” he said.
Azerbaijan has the smallest number of patients infected with covid-19, 20 currently, but it is the only country in the Caucasus which recorded a death case from the virus (Caucasus Watch reported).