YEREVAN. – If the number of severely ill patients increases so much that there is no room in hospitals, we will have to return to total lockdown. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this on his Facebook livestream Saturday morning, and regarding the ongoing fight in Armenia against COVID-19.

"Let's say we did the lockdown, the numbers even came to zero. Is this a solution to the problem? This is not a solution to the problem because the coronavirus continues to exist in the world, even in a country with zero [cases], and when we start to open up after a total lockdown, the infection starts to spread again,” the PM said.

He emphasized that their perception of the solution of the issue is as follows: "First of all, we need to give the healthcare system whatever it wants so we can increase its capacity. But it is time consuming, and the opportunity to increase capacity is not limitless. That’s why the solution is to reduce the number of patients; but not administratively and imperatively (…).

That's why my philosophy is that if we can conventionally divide this heavy burden that has been placed on our shoulders into 3 million parts [the number of Armenia’s population], [if] everyone puts a small burden on [his] shoulders, which he can bear, although it will be inconvenient. It's one thing for the government to bear that entire heavy burden alone, it's another thing for all of us to bear that burden; this is the logic of our whole policy now," he added.