On 6 August, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev held a video conference on measures being taken to combat the coronavirus pandemic and the socioeconomic situation in the country.

The head of state addressed the meeting. The following are some highlights from President Ilham Aliyev's speech:

“There is positive dynamics in the fight against coronavirus. The positive trend observed since 16 July gives us reason to say that all the measures taken were quite timely. As a result of these measures, the situation is under control to this day. Since 16 July, the number of new cases of infection is far lower than the number of people recovering from the disease. This positive trend suggests that we will continue to keep the coronavirus disease under control.”

“Today, 46 hospitals are there to serve only coronavirus patients. I must also say that 41 of these 46 hospitals were built or overhauled and provided with state-of-the-art equipment in the past 17 years. If we had not taken these steps on time, we would be faced with great problems and a tragic situation today.”

“Azerbaijan today is one of the leaders in the world in terms of the number of tests per capita.”

“We have increased the number of our laboratories five times in a short period of time. The new laboratories to be acquired in the near future will enable even more tests. We must increase the total number of laboratories to 45.”

“Nine modular hospitals have been commissioned to date. Four of them started operating in one day – on 29 July. These hospitals were opened with my participation in Gobustan, Ismayilli, Gabala and Shaki. In the near future, the total number of modular hospitals will reach 16, so a total of 3,200 coronavirus patients will be treated in these hospitals alone.”