Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of top news as of 23.03.2020:

·       The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Armenia has reached 194, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported. And two patients have already recovered.

By the way, according to Armenian health minister Arsen Torosyan, there are no patients in a grave or extremely grave conditions among the people infected.

·       The Armenian parliament adopted in the second reading the amendments to the Criminal Code and Code on Administrative Offences to toughen punishment for those breaching the rules of the state of emergency during the pandemic. 

The government proposed to fine all those who would breach the demands of quarantine or self-isolation so that people could be held accountable for negligence.

The punishment will be tougher if the man infected two or more persons, an underage or a pregnant woman. The Cabinet also offers to punish those who would violate the restrictions on the publication or dissemination of information set by the rules under a state of emergency.

Meanwhile, according to the deputy chief of police, police daily register 2-4 cases of violation of self-isolation.

·       Armenian MFA issued a statement on the restrictions imposed on entry to the republic for foreign nationals traveling from coronavirus outbreak high-risk countries or visiting them 14 days before travel to Armenia.

As of 22 March, the list of such countries includes the US, Australia, EU member states, Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, China, Iran, South Korea, Israel, Japan, the UK, Canada, Russia, and Georgia.

And according to the Armenian embassy in Russia, air communication between Armenia and Russia will be carried out exclusively through Moscow as Russia introduces a temporary restriction on passenger air transportation from Russia to foreign states.

·       Over 100,000 people have recovered from coronavirus globally, the death toll has reached 15,317. And there are 350,511 coronavirus cases worldwide.

China still has the highest number of cases - over 80,093, while Italy has more than 59,000 cases, and the US - over 59,000.

·       The Venice Commission, together with the OSCE/ODIHR, published an opinion on draft amendments pertaining to political party regulation in Armenia and welcomed many of the proposals in the draft amendments.

However, to further improve the compliance of the draft amendments, they make the following recommendations: to remove overly burdensome requirements for founding and registering a political party, to ensure that all in-kind donations are counted as donations, to abolish the requirement of the workplace of a donor to be disclosed or published. They also recommend to develop a clear mechanism of oversight by the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption with a clear delineation of mandates and a detailed procedure and to ensure that sufficient staff and budget is allocated to the Commission, as well as to amend the Law so that the term “gross nature of the violation of the law” reflects the gravity of the violation.