Reporters Without Borders has expressed concern over the Armenian authorities’ restrictions on the media amid the current state of emergency linked to the Chinese coronavirus (COVID-19).
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“Armenia declares state of emergency and compels media to quote only official sources. Controlling infos doesn’t help to fight epidemia but spread rumors and fear!” the organization said in a tweet.
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The latest statistics (reported by the prime minister in a Facebook live earlier today) suggests that there are 84 confirmed cases of the disease in the country as of Wednesday afternoon.
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The government passed the bill to declare emergency on Monday, March 16, establishing the period until April 14 as the effective date of the measure.
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The global cases of the novel coronavirus hit nearly 200,000 on Wednesday, with the death toll reaching crossing the boundary of 8,000. A total of 81,000 people are reported to have overcome the disease.
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The pandemic spread across 159 countries outside mainland China. Italy is known to be the second worst-affected country, followed by Iran and South Korea.
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H/T Tert