The Armenian parliament has established an investigative Committee to probe the government's handling of the coronavirus epidemic, National Assembly President Ararat Mirzoyan said in a statement on Thursday, July 2.

The move comes after opposition parties Bright Armenia and Prosperous Armenia requested the creation of such a committee on Thursday.

Mirzoyan said the special committee is being established at the request of at least one fourth of the total number of the deputies and is set "to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, to have effective measures carried out by the government and the Commandant’s Office for mitigating or eliminating the consequences of the fight against that virus, as well as to study the efficiency and the lawfulness of the restrictions of the human rights and fundamental freedoms during the period of the state of emergency."

The members of the new committee will be identified at a National Assembly meeting in September.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia grew by 662 to reach 27,320 on Friday morning. So far, 15,484 people have recovered, 469 have died from the coronavirus in the country, while 156 others carrying the virus have died from other causes.