Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 02.09.21:

  • President Arayik Harutyunyan on Thursday visited the Stepanakert city memorial on the 30th anniversary of the Artsakh Republic Day and laid a wreath in memory of the casualties of the Artsakh and Patriotic wars.

He was accompanied by the second and third presidents of Artsakh, Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan.

After the 44-day war last fall, Armenia, the guarantor of the security of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), for the first time did not participate in the 30th Artsakh Independence Day anniversary events Thursday at the level of its top leadership.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has decided to go on a four-day vacation, from which he will return on Friday — the day after the anniversary of Artsakh's independence.

Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian is also on vacation these days.

  • The UK has provided half a million pounds to help clear landmines in and around Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)], to make the area safe, prevent injuries and save lives following last year’s conflict, the UK government noted in a press release.

The funds given to the United Nations Development Programme will help with training and personnel to support mine clearance and make contaminated land safe for human use in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

As a leading force for good in the region, the UK was the first country to announce humanitarian support following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, with £1 million donated to the International Committee of the Red Cross to support those affected.

Accordingly, up to 869 such reservists will be retrained in these camps.

The decision is due to the need to conduct training camps to improve the military skills of these reservists and to retrain and train them to this end.

This process is ongoing, and new military units and reservists will be included in these training camps in the coming years.

  • As of Thursday morning, 636 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 243,386 in the country.

Also, 19 more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 4,876 cases.

As of yesterday, 6,394 tests were conducted, of which 636 were positive; that is, we are crossing the 10% threshold.

The Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan noted that at the moment they have about 1,600 beds for COVID-19 patients, and 1,400 of them are already occupied.