Yesterday, the Stepanavan Municipality announced that the Stepanavan Mayor Mikael Gharakeshishyan had died, but did not specify the cause of his passing.

Rumors circulating in the town, in Armenia’s Lori Province, alleged that Gharakeshishyan had died from the coronavirus.

In a conversation with Hetq, Municipality Staff Secretary Gayane Ghalachyan and Gharakeshishyan’s spokesperson Telemak Kalashyan would not confirm that the mayor had been diagnosed with coronavirus and had died from it.

"He had a cold and we told him to go home. It happened very quickly,  less than   two days,” Kalashyan told Hetq.

Gharakeshishyan was hospitalized at the Spitak Medical Center, where he died.

Hospital Director Varduhi Sisakyan did not deny in a conversation with us that the mayor of Stepanavan died of a coronavirus.

Sisakyan said the hospital now only treats patients infected with the coronavirus and that the cause of Gharakeshishyan ‘s death was listed as the coronavirus.

Mikael Gharakeshishyan's funeral service will be held at the Stepanavan church.

The Police Information Department told Hetq that given the declared state of war, they are carrying out an intensified service throughout the country, without specifying whether there will be stricter control at the Stepanavan Church to comply with anti-epidemic rules.

Top photo: Mikael Gharakeshishyan