YEREVAN. – What is the point of these tightening of getting gloves and masks at the entrance of the NA [National Assembly sessions’] hall? If there is a sick person, let's tell them not to come, or let's all of us go and take a test. Edmon Marukyan, chairman of the opposition Bright Armenia party and head of the Bright Armenia faction in parliament, stated this in the NA Wednesday, noting that NA speaker Ararat Mirzoyan, who is chairing the sitting, has neither a mask nor a glove.

"There is such a new epidemic in the world, including in Armenia, due to the coronavirus," Mirzoyan said in response. "Now no one is forced to do anything, the MPs are offered to take a mask and a glove at the entrance of the hall; you may wear, you may not.

Yes, there is a suspicion, perhaps a reasonable suspicion, that one of the employees of the NA has had contact [with a person with COVID-19]. Until the circumstances become clear, we are all taking preventive measures a little more stringently.

I would like to inform that a few days after the state of emergency was declared, I said that all the MPs who would have concerns and would prefer not to participate in the sittings, those absences would be consider acceptable. [But] I will come to work until the last day [of the current state of emergency]."