LAUSR

The first case of COVID-19 was detected in Armenia on January 3, 2020, with a citizen returned from Iran. According to the mass media statement of the Prime Minister, all necessary measures were taken to detect and isolate all contacted persons. Considering the increased spread of the COVID-19 in Armenia, the Government declared state of emergency on March 16, 2020, which was then periodically extended.2 Later, the legal State of Emergency was terminated and the RA Government Decree 1514-N on the introduction of quarantine in connection with COVID-19 entered into force, according to which quarantine was established and certain restrictions were applied throughout the RA from September 11, 2020. Since then, the Government was extending the quarantine every 6 months until June 20, 2022.3 The MoH developed and adopted the guideline on surveillance, case investigation, and home care of COVID-19 uncomplicated and mild cases. The document stated preference for isolated COVID-19 patients in hospitals and specialized locations, but in case of limited capacities, primary health care physicians can manage patients with uncomplicated and mild forms of disease at home. The health status of the contact person should be monitored for 14 days.4 With subsequent changes in the law,5 amendments were made to the State of Emergency Decree which anticipated that the operators of the public electronic communication networks would transmit the data through Virtual Private Network to the e-Governance infrastructure implementation agency (Figure 1). These data would include information about persons being tested, infected, having symptoms of illness, sickness, treatment and their contacts, as well as the data necessary to determine the location of provided health service to isolated person (customer location), as well as phone numbers and those who had communication with particular individual (associated mobile number) up to 14 days ago. Based on the legal framework assessment, the process of contact tracing (CT) and their monitoring could be conditionally divided in two main stages: first—before the relevant amendments were made to the law On the Legal Regime of the State of Emergency, when the contact detection process was organized and carried out without the use of electronic communications and software; second—after the implementation of corresponding changes using electronic means of communication and software. 1117897 APHXXX10.1177/10105395221117897Asia Pacific Journal of Public HealthMelik-Nubaryan et al research-article2022