Virus thrives in Karabakh’s bomb shelters

Residents safe from shelling but another danger still lurks

Close quarters, poor ventilation and no masks: in the cellars of Stepanakert, the capital of the disputed NagornoKarabakh province, residents who have not fled fierce fighting may be safe from shelling, but not coronavirus.

Adjoining basements beneath one unassuming threestorey building in the city have been repurposed as a bomb shelter, where residents are seeking refuge from shelling by Azerbaijan’s forces.

Inside the shelter

The largest roomin the basement — around 50 square metres with a ceiling lower than 6.5 feet— serves as the sleeping quarters.

Around ten mattresses and blankets are placed on stone benches built against the walls and the earthen floor is carpeted with cardboard boxes.

Lusine Tovmasyan used to run a medical testing centre in Stepanakert.

But when fighting erupted, the 44- year- old began working for the health authorities, carrying out coronavirus tests at the city’s main hospital or at the homes of residents unable to travel. On Friday morning she arrived at the building to test two women aged 63 and 76 thought to be possibly infected.

“We do an average of 60 tests per day,” says Tovmasyan, the only person among a half- dozen women in the cellar to be wearing a mask. “The infection rate is quite high,” she says because “people are living in groups in basements without masks ”.

Alarming figures

“Between 40 and 60 per cent of people test positive. It depends on the day”.

After swabs are processed in the Armenian capital Yerevan — around four hours away by road — Tovmasyan says health workers compile lists of whose returned positive and the people theywere in contactwith.