YEREVAN. – It is clear that the coronavirus will accompany us for a long time because if a wave passes, mutations are occurring, and so on. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the interim government of Armenia, referring to the need for being vaccinated against COVID-19.

"But there is also good news. At least, according to the data available so far, the existing vaccines are effective for all [coronavirus] strains, which means that if we interpret your call for vigilance, what does it mean? Two things that we must continue the vaccination work very intensively. And secondly, we, nonetheless, must keep the practice of wearing [face] masks indoors at the best possible level. (…) as early as May 2020, we have adopted the following policy that we must learn to live with the coronavirus. We have such a decision, and I hope we will be able to implement this decision in practice, that we will not go to the lockdowns at all; but we must do this together," Pashinyan added.

According to him, this process should be actively promoted among the employees of state-run agencies. "But if the statistics force us to do that—it is about tightening the rules of wearing masks—, we will have to go in that direction. But I repeat: the most effective way is vaccination," the acting premier said.

Pashinyan added that Armenia currently has a fairly good stock of COVID-19 vaccines, and is continuing negotiations to reach the respective targets it needs.