It is the largest number of single-day infections registered by them during the pandemic.
The Armenian Ministry of Health said in the morning that as much as 40 percent of coronavirus tests taken in the past 24 hours came back positive.
The first Omicron cases were detected in Armenia less than three weeks ago. The daily number of infections has skyrocketed since then.
The authorities have not yet reported a significant increase in hospitalizations. Health Minister Anahit Avanesian said on Thursday that they will set up more hospital beds for COVID-19 patients “if need be.”
Avanesian’s ministry recorded no coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday. This may have to do with the fact that only 150 or so people tested positive for the virus on a daily basis in early January.
“Just because no deaths were registered does not mean that this wave [of infecctions] will definitely be much less serious,” Varsen Nersisian, head of the COVID-19 section at Yerevan’s Nork hospital for infectious diseases, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“We really don’t know yet what we are up against,” she said, referring to Omicron.
Echoing statements by government officials, Nersisian urged Armenians to receive a coronavirus vaccine.
Only about one-third of the country’s population has been fully vaccinated so far.