Azernews.Az

By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijan might tighten the quarantine regime over COVID-19 on a regional or larger scale if the situation worsens, head of the department of the Administration of the Regional Medical Divisions (TABIB) Yagut Garayeva said at a press conference of the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers on May 5.

"It is necessary to exit the quarantine regime by following the rules. But today no one wants to do that. The figures also show that the situation is deteriorating," Garayeva noted.

She stressed that the country has recently started to lose the positive dynamics as the number of new infections is growing.

In the meantime, Chief State Traffic Police Department that 486 people were brought to administrative responsibility due to violating the quarantine rules by moving on highways between April 4 and April 5.

Overall, as of April 1, 47,963 road users have been brought to administrative responsibility for violating the special quarantine regime on the country's roads, including the capital Baku.

Furthermore, Baku City Main Police Department (BCMPD) has reported that 275 people have been detained in Baku, for misusing permits by moving on the streets without necessity on non-working days.

Meanwhile, in order to support the measures taken in the country to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Department of Information Technology and Innovation of the State Agency on Mandatory Medical Insurance has automated 120 sample collection points and 19 laboratories across the country, local media reported on May 6.

Since these institutions are equipped with computer equipment, printers, bar code readers, software for operational sampling and results, it will ensure to that the results of tests performed are automatically processed into a single database, and to inform the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers and the relevant government agencies electronically.

Thus, people whose test results are negative will be informed via SMS message sent by the agency.

In the meantime, the Fund to Support Fight against Coronavirus has collected 113 million manats ($66.4m) as of May 5. The Fund to Support Fight Against Coronavirus was set up on March 19 upon presidential decree. Initially, the government allocated $11.7 million to the fund and the president and the first lady donated their annual salaries to the fund. As of April 8, the fund had collected about $65.1 million. Donations have been made by 2,692 legal entities and 8,223 individuals.

Earlier, on March 3, President Ilham Aliyev announced the allocation of $5.8m for fight against the spread of coronavirus in the country.

So far, 2,127 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Azerbaijan; 1,536 of them have recovered, and 28 people have died.

Azerbaijan introduced special quarantine regime on March 24 over COVID-19. As of April 5, residents are required to obtain SMS permit to leave their homes.

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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

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