Some of the allegations against the Ministry of Health are due to our honesty and sincerity. This is what Minister of Health of Armenia Arsen Torosyan told Azatutyun Radio today when the journalist said perhaps the current coronavirus situation could have been different, if the government made wearing masks mandatory from the start.

“Over the past two days, the World Health Organization has been saying that masks don’t need to be worn in free spaces and that average citizens don’t need to wear them, and I had also made that call. I can also justify the reason why I made that call and why the government is making wearing masks mandatory now. The first time I made the call was in a period when there was a big deficit of face masks around the world, even doctors didn’t have them. Of course, there hasn’t been a day when doctors in Armenia haven’t had face masks, but there have been days when Armenia has only had 1,000 face masks,” he said.

According to Torosyan, in any case, the effectiveness of face masks is proven and brought up an example by wearing a face masks during the interview. “If we’re talking about people in a bus or any closed space, a face mask protects you from breathing very close and from touching your mouth, nose and eyes. Consequently, since Armenia has access to face masks and the objective to prevent the spread of the coronavirus through a new lifestyle, the mandatory requirement to wear face masks is very important,” he said.