YEREVAN (TASS) — The Armenian healthcare system is overburdened and doctors are unable to timely hospitalize all coronavirus infected people, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a live broadcast on his Facebook account on Thursday.

Pashinyan said:

Yesterday, doctors identified 697 new coronavirus cases. This means that the pandemic situation is increasingly deteriorating and that there are patients who need hospitalization but we cannot do this on time. The healthcare system is working at its utmost capacity.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Armenia has reached 11,221, the prime minister specified. Six coronavirus patients died in Armenian hospitals in the past twenty-four hours, Pashinyan added.

Fatalities in the republic have reached 176 since the start of the pandemic. The daily number of new coronavirus cases has become the largest since the epidemic onset. Before June 4, the biggest number of new coronavirus cases in the republic equalled 517.

On June 3, the Armenian premier assessed the scope of the violation of epidemiological safety standards as disastrous and stressed that law enforcement agencies could not keep the situation under control.

Pashinyan announced on Monday that he and his family had contracted the novel coronavirus. According to the prime minister, he and his family members had no disease symptoms and their temperature was normal. Pashinyan said he had switched to self-isolation mode and would be working from home.

On May 14, the Armenian authorities extended by 30 days the state of emergency imposed over the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, all types of public transport, kindergartens, fitness centers and shopping malls resumed their operation on May 18.

Also, the mask regime went into force in Armenia on May 25. Armenian citizens are required to wear face masks both in closed and open spaces.

Although the Armenian authorities have eased economic restrictions, they have warned that tight measures will be introduced in the republic to fight the coronavirus, if the data show an increase in COVID-19 cases.