Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko, right, taking part in a hockey match in Minsk earlier this month.
Photo: Andrei Pokumeiko/Associated PressWhile millions of people around the world are still confined to their homes, in Belarus, soccer games are being played and restaurants are open as usual.
President Alexander Lukashenko has little truck with those who say the novel coronavirus poses a grave risk to public health, joining other outliers such as Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro and Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who have shunned lockdown measures and encouraged people to continue going to work or relax at the beach.
The result is a nation going very much against the grain, with uncertain results.
A burly 65-year-old with a thick mustache, Mr. Lukashenko has ruled this former Soviet republic for almost three decades after it abandoned communism. In the 1990s he spoke admiringly of Adolf Hitler’s interest in maintaining public order and he still competes in cross-country ski races, most recently last year.
The coronavirus pandemic, he says, is a “psychosis” and has suggested treating it with folk remedies such as drinking vodka, taking dry saunas or driving tractors in the countryside. He insists his government has strengthened the health-care system and no one in his country has died of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Anyone criticizing his hands-off approach is playing politics, he says.
“We have responded adequately, but not excessively,” the official BelTA news agency reported him saying during a meeting of top officials Thursday.
He also appears to be doubling down on his gambit: His defense ministry this week said it would allow an annual parade to go ahead on May 9 to mark the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany despite almost 8,000 people signing a petition asking it to be canceled to help slow the spread the virus.
Wedged between Russia and the European Union, Belarus has refused to close its borders and there are no official quarantine or social-distancing measures in place. Restaurants, bars and other places for recreation remain open, and sporting events, including ice-hockey matches and Belarus’s premier soccer league, continue as scheduled.
Fans at a soccer match in the town of Zhodino, Belarus last month.
Photo: Sergei Grits/Associated PressMr. Lukashenko himself plays on an amateur hockey team and has continued to take part in games at venues teeming with spectators, none of them wearing masks. “There are no viruses here,” he told a television reporter during a match last month. “Did you see any flying around? I don’t see them either.”
The president’s office later revealed a member of Mr. Lukashenko’s team had tested positive for the novel coronavirus after being hospitalized with what was initially believed to be pneumonia.
Belarus has implemented some measures, such as testing suspect cases, tracing their contacts and isolating the sick, while increasing capacity to manage the surge of coronavirus cases.
The World Health Organization, which this month sent a delegation to Belarus, has urged Mr. Lukashenko’s government to do more, saying it has entered a new and more dangerous stage of the outbreak where the virus is spreading within the community. “The number of Covid-19 cases in Belarus is growing rapidly,” it said on Tuesday.
Officially, 8,022 coronavirus cases have been recorded across the country, resulting in 60 deaths, according to government data. But Mr. Lukashenko insists those resulted from other chronic illnesses. “Viruses strike those who are weak and have no immunity,” he said Tuesday.
“I am absolutely convinced that panic can hurt us more than the virus itself,” Mr. Lukashenko recently told a government meeting.
Mr. Lukashenko greets worshipers at an Orthodox Easter service near Minsk.
Photo: Nikolai Petrov/Associated PressBut many Belarusians, including health professionals, worry his laissez-faire approach is putting lives at risk.
Natalya Larionova, a doctor in the Belarusian city of Vitebsk, sounded the alarm in late March. Doctors would soon not be able to cope with the influx of coronavirus patients, she wrote on social media. Many physicians were in hospital suffering from pneumonia and the general situation, she said, was getting “out of control.”
Ms. Larionova, who called the government’s coronavirus infection and death numbers “mythical,” said she was summoned to the prosecutor’s office for questioning about her comments but wasn’t charged.
Alexander Loban, a colleague of Ms. Larionova who has been documenting the spread of the virus in a video blog, has urged people to speak up. A physician, he described his shock at breezing through the airport on his return to Belarus from the Netherlands in March.
“No one measured my temperature, no one asked me about health and possible complaints, I didn’t fill out any questionnaires, nothing at all,” Mr. Loban wrote on social media. It was like, “take your suitcase and get out of the airport! The gates for the penetration of the coronavirus are wide open,” he said.
Mr. Lukashenko on the ice in Minsk this month.
Photo: andrei pokumeiko/pool/ShutterstockSome Belarusians are taking no chances and are participating in a “grass-roots quarantine,” that includes voluntarily self-isolating, avoiding going to restaurants, having groceries delivered and shunning shopping centers.
Pavel Yukhnevich, who works in internet sales, is keeping his 7-year-old daughter out of school.
“I sent her to the [countryside] cottage along with my parents,” Mr. Yukhnevich said in an email. “In general, the situation requires children to stay at home.
On Monday, schools were ordered to reopen after an Easter break that saw churches packed with worshipers, to the dismay of some parents, who said they wanted the government to mandate wearing masks in schools.
Mr. Lukashenko, whose office didn’t respond to requests for comment, has dismissed that idea, calling it “utter stupidity.” He has warned that he won’t allow fear of the coronavirus to damage Belarus’s impoverished economy.
The average monthly income in Belarus is around $458 a month and an estimated 4.2% of the country’s approximately 9.5 million people were unemployed in February of this year, according to data from the country’s official statistical agency. The World Bank forecasts that Belarus’ economy will contract by more than 2% this year as a result of the global impact of the coronavirus crisis.
As a result, some people applaud Mr. Lukashenko’s refusal to lock down the country. “Many people have loans or live without a financial pillow,” said Olga Rukhlenko, a 36 year-old yoga and Indian dance instructor, who has a 3-year-old son. “These people are ready to work to somehow stay afloat.”
Igor Streltsov, a 30-year-old furniture maker, said he believed the president’s strategy has succeeded in preventing panic.
“We’re grateful we don’t have quarantine and we live in peace as we did before the epidemic,” he said.
—Valentina Ochirova contributed to this article.
Write to Ann M. Simmons at ann.simmons@wsj.com
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
"much" - Google News
April 25, 2020 at 08:13PM
https://ift.tt/2S7U366
In Belarus, Everyday Life Is Much the Same as Coronavirus Spreads - The Wall Street Journal
"much" - Google News
https://ift.tt/37eLLij
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "In Belarus, Everyday Life Is Much the Same as Coronavirus Spreads - The Wall Street Journal"
Post a Comment