360 children hospitalized in Yerevan

Three-hundred-and-sixty children, mostly under the age of two, are currently receiving medical treatment in Yerevan hospitals for acute respiratory viral diseases as well as pneumonia.

However, none of the children are seriously ill and most did not need inpatient treatment. Doctors estimate that only 10% of them would have been hospitalized had their illnesses not coincided with the holidays, as clinics weren’t operating to their full extent.

Deputy director of the “Holy Mother of God” medical center, David Dallakyan said that the number of ill children is lower than it was in previous years.

“There wasn’t an empty bed in the entire department last year. That’s not the case this year,” Dallakyan said.

Liana Torosyan, an employee at the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that the situation is typical of the season and there is no cause for panic. In her opinion, it’s not even worth thinking about closing schools and kindergartens for quarantine as only very young children are sick.