YEREVAN. – Zhoghovurd daily of Armenia writes: The order of the Minister of Health has already entered into force in Armenia on October 1, according to which, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the employees [in the country] must either be vaccinated or submit the result of a negative coronavirus test to the employer by October 14.

Most of the citizens have already made their choice, have been vaccinated, whereas some will try to avoid vaccination through getting tested.

It seemed that by taking a test only twice a month, it would be possible to avoid getting vaccinated, but, in actual fact, our citizens will suffer huge material losses.

Taking into account the duration of the pandemic, the order of the Minister of Health will remain in force for a long time. We are talking about at least 3-4 years; that is, for at least 3-4 years the citizens will have to take a test twice a month, if, of course, they do not want to be vaccinated. In just 3 years, this makes 72 tests. The prices of PCR tests in Armenia fluctuate in the range of 7-15 thousand drams, on average—10 thousand drams. In fact, citizens who do not want to be vaccinated will have to spend an amount of 72 × 10,000 = 720,000 drams for 3 years only on getting tested.

Are our citizens ready to bear such a heavy financial burden or not? Everyone will make their choice: to be vaccinated, or to pay at least 500-720 thousand drams for the tests.

Perhaps the current Armenian authorities do not seem to care about what situation the citizens have ended up in. Moreover, the authorities are doing everything possible so that the citizens get vaccinated, since, as the government assures, collective vaccination is the only way to fight the pandemic.