Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan announced today that a confirmed three more cases of the new coronavirus infection have been confirmed in the country, thus bringing the total to four.

Pashinyan, in a Facebook post, says that the three new cases, all people travelling from Italy, include a 51-year-old Italian citizen who is working in Armenia. The other two are Armenian citizens aged 45 and 27.

“In terms of quarantine, a clarification of whom they were in contact with is taking place. Preliminary data shows their circle of contact isn’t large,” Pashinyan writes.

“Anticipating criticism as to why we did not make the decision to stop flights from Italy, I would say that we have discussed this possibility several times and came to the obvious conclusion that potential carriers can come to Armenia from countries neighboring Italy like France and Austria, since internal restrictions haven’t been applied within the EU,” Pashinyan goes on to say.

Pashinyan says that Armenia would have to had shut down flights from other European countries as well.

“The airlines have now stopped flights from Italy,” he writes.

Budget airline Ryanair has suspended all flights form Italy to Yerevan and back.

“Dear compatriots, please keep calm and follow the advice of the Ministry of Health on measures to prevent coronavirus,” Pashinyan writes in conclusion.

Armenia’s first confirmed new coronavirus case was of a 29-year-old Armenian citizen returning from Iran on March 1.

Armenian Deputy PM Tigran Avinyan announced today that a special charter flight from Rome to Yerevan is scheduled for March 15 to evacuate Armenian citizens from Italy.