NEWS.am daily digest: 14.04.2020

Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenian-related top news as of 14.04.2020

· A total of 1,067 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Armenia.

According to the latest data, 265 coronavirus patients have recovered so far, whereas 16 others have died from the disease.

As the PM Nikol Pashinyan noted, the average age of the latest two death cases is 74.8.

The PM added that these statistics enable us to say that Armenia has the opportunity to break the "backbone" of COVID-19.

We’ve already reported that the Armenian government yesterday extended the emergency state in Armenia to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

· The second round of the presidential elections in Artsakh was held on Tuesday amid the emergency declared in the republic.

In the first round, ex-PM Arayik Harutyunyan and serving FM Masis Mayilian have passed to the second round with 49,26% and 26,4% of votes, respectively.

According to the data received from the territorial electoral commissions, as of 2 pm, 29,443 voters, or 28.4% of the total number of voters, have participated in the elections.

[UPDATE] Based on the data provided by territorial electoral commissions, as of 5 p.m. 38,839 voters, or 37.5% of the total number of voters.

· Four police officers have been arrested through the investigative actions carried out by officers of the Armenian National Security Service and the police. The news was confirmed by the attorney of three of those four police officers Garik Galikyan.

“The police officers are charged, and arrest has been selected as a pre-trial measure against them,” the attorney said, adding that he has appealed against the decision on arrest, yet didn’t mention the charge.

Earlier on April 9, officers of the Police and NSS entered one of the police stations in Yerevan and conducted investigative actions. To this day, the NSS still hasn’t provided any official information about the case under which those actions were carried out.

· Two police officers were stabbed in Gyumri, Armenia, shamshyan.com reports.

They had tried to find out the identities of two citizens and whether they had the movement permission document that is needed during the current state of emergency that has been declared in the country.

However, these persons argued with the officers of the law, during which one of them stabbed a traffic police officer and an officer of the law with a knife. But this citizen was rendered ineffective and taken to a police precinct.

· Glendale City Council Member Vrej Agajanian was selected as the City’s Mayor by fellow council members.

Agajanian replaces outgoing Mayor Ara Najarian, MassisPost reported.

Agajanian was first elected to office in April 2017. Over the years, he has also served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Armenian Society of Los Angeles, Auditor of the DM Educational Foundation, and chairman of the Shushi Orphanage School Board of Trustees.