Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 25.08.2020:

• 111 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of cases has reached 42,936.

The death toll is 858.

The number of people who have recovered over the past one day is 426, the total number of people who have recovered so far is 36,475, and the number of people currently being treated is 5,343—which is a drop by 323 in one day.

A total of 196,873 tests have been performed to date.

• Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has signed a decision to grant vacation to minister of health Arsen Torosyan from August 31 to September 18, inclusive.

During that time Torosyan will be replaced by first deputy minister of health Anahit Avanesyan.

To note, rumors have been circulating for the past two days that Arsen Torosyan has submitted his resignation as Minister of Health.

• The spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia Shushan Stepanyan has shared an update on the Armenian officer Gurgen Alaverdyan who got lost and was captured in Azerbaijan.

"The Ministry of Defense of Armenia recommends that the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan doesn’t make additional efforts to distort the reality. The facts will be clear in a short while," she noted adding: "We inform that an official investigation will be conducted. According to our data, officer Gurgen Alaverdyan got confused."

• The Seismic Protection Service of Armenia on Monday recorded a magnitude-3.1 earthquake in Iran, at 10:25pm local time, 21 km south of Parsabad town.

It measured magnitude 4 at the epicenter.

The hypocenter of this seismic activity was 12 kilometers beneath the surface.

The quake was felt in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), too—with magnitude 2 in capital city Stepanakert.

• The first court hearing on the criminal case against Gagik Khachatryan, former Minister of Finance and ex-Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Armenia, and his nephew Karen Khachatryan will not be held Tuesday as was scheduled.

Tuesday’s court session was pushed back based on Gagik Khachatryan's respective petition and rescheduled to Wednesday.

Gagik Khachatryan has been charged under the Criminal Code articles on abuse of power, embezzlement or squandering, taking bribe, and official fraud. And Karen Khachatryan has been charged under the Criminal Code articles on embezzlement or squandering, and official fraud.

Both are under arrest.