Three cases of reinfection with coronavirus reported in Armenia

Armenia reports three cases of people who became reinfected with coronavirus after recovering from the disease. This was reported on May 4 by Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan.

He states that there is an academic debate going around the global scientific community about the possibility of reinfection. Torosyan gave three possible ways this reinfection may occur.

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Situation one: the patient fully recovers, and then contracts the virus once again.

Situation two: the body manages to temporarily deactivate the virus, but after a certain amount of time, it becomes reactivated.

Situation three, and the most likely situation, as stated by the minister: some elements of COVID-19 remain in the system for a few months. The virus is not active, but the test still comes back positive.

“The virus is no longer multiplying, but its RNA [ribonucleic acid] is present in the cells, which is detected during testing…in the cases of reinfection in Armenia, none of the patients had any symptoms or ailments, although two weeks after they were discharged, they again tested positive for coronavirus. We isolated them in order to prevent them from spreading the virus to others,” says Arsen Torosyan.

In light of this, the minister announced that they were not ruling out the possibility of a worst-case scenario in terms of the spread of the epidemic in Armenia, and that by the end of May, the number of cases in Armenia may reach 10,000.

There is currently no shortage of medical equipment, medicine, medical staff or hospital beds in Armenia. But if people do not follow safety rules and sanitary standards, then the number of infected people may grow up to hundreds of thousands. If that happens, the country will experience a shortage of resources.

“Today, there are about 350 free beds in Armenian hospitals, and some of the very mild patients are quarantined in hotels. We will be consistent in ensuring that those citizens in need of assistance will receive it,” said the minister.