Winter holidays in Armenia have been prolonged for another week due to ARVI and flu.
During the Government's session, Armenian Minister of Health Armen Muradyan suggested prolonging the holidays at schools and pre-school establishments for one more week due to the epidemiological situation in the country. 80% of the ARVI patients are children. The Government has satisfied the proposal.
Muradyan added that over the past 20 days more than 20,000 people have applied to hospitals, with 7,000 of them being URI (upper respiratory infection) patients. At the moment, 948 citizens are still undergoing medical treatment, with 420 of them being diagnosed with pneumonia. "Last year only 3 death cases were registered versus 8 cases this year," he said.
To note, as of 14 January 2016, 11 people have died of H1N1 (swine flu), with 3 of them in 2015. By the Health Minister's order, the treatment of all the ARVI patients at hospitals is free of charge.