Alina Nikoghosyan, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health, issued a statement saying:

“There is a shortage of sampling sticks in the world and in Armenia at the moment. The National Center for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday purchased 4,600 sticks for 2,300 samples (2 sticks are used per sample).

600 sticks for 300 samples were distributed to the primary health care circles, in particular to Yerevan Polyclinic No. 17.

I would like to inform that a large batch of sticks is expected in the coming days, which will be distributed to the establishments that carry out sampling.”