Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region reports first coronavirus case


Reuters | Yerevan | Updated: 07-04-2020 19:11 IST | Created: 07-04-2020 19:11 IST
Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region reports first coronavirus case
  • Country:
  • Armenia

Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh confirmed its first case of the coronavirus on Tuesday, the region's information centre said on its Facebook page. "The infected person had recently returned from Armenia, from where the disease could be potentially imported," it said in a statement.

Neighbouring Armenia reported 853 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of Tuesday with 87 people having recovered from the infection and eight deaths. Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous part of Azerbaijan, is run by ethnic Armenians who declared independence during a conflict that broke out as the Soviet Union crumpled in 1991.

Though a ceasefire was agreed in 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia still regularly accuse each other of carrying out attacks around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Azeri-Armenian border. Nagorno-Karabakh survives almost totally on budget support from Armenia and donations from the Armenian diaspora.

The region held parliamentary and presidential elections last week. The presidential vote run-off is scheduled for April 14. Around 1,000 observers and journalists went to Nagorno- Karabakh from Armenia, although Yerevan had said earlier that it would limit entry of that country's residents into Nagorno-Karabakh.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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