Armenia will start acquiring confirmatory test kits to identify if a patient is positive for the novel coronavirus, Health Minister Arsen Torosyan told reporters on Friday, January 31.
"This is a new disease and the test is under development,” the minister said, adding that an arrangement has been reached with a Chinese manufacturer for buying the tests," the Minister said, according to Aysor.am.
“Our embassy will acquire the tests and send them to Armenia for us to use them if necessary.”
Torosyan revealed that the tests are used only when clinical symptoms of the disease come forth.
So far, he said, there hasn’t been any suspected case in Armenia among travelers arriving in the country.
At least 213 people have died in China - mostly in Hubei province where the virus emerged - with almost 10,000 cases nationally.
The WHO said there had been 98 cases in 18 other countries, but no deaths.
Most international cases are in people who had been to the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei.
