In a mask, it means an oppositionist. What’s happening with the coronavirus in Belarus?
- Alina Isachenko
- BBC Russian Service, London
In October, the average daily incidence of Covid-19 in Belarus is about 2 thousand rubles. cases – became a record for all time since the beginning of the pandemic. According to unofficial data, the number of people infected with coronavirus can be ten times higher. Despite the record statistics of the Ministry of Health and low vaccination rates, President Alexander Lukashenko canceled the mandatory wearing of masks and urged not to force people to get vaccinated. Doctors who left the country after the protests are accused of the power of lies and denial of reality.
The BBC Russian service reports what is happening with Covid-19 in Belarus, and how the position of Alexander Lukashenko in relation to the coronavirus has changed since the beginning of the pandemic.
Discrepancy in numbers and “cautious optimism”
“The situation with Covid-19 in the country is cautiously optimistic.
Lukashenka, at first, not on the first try, put on the mask correctly, and then sprinkled with an antiseptic – as if it were cologne. Then he went to the patient in the ward and advised not to worry. “You will live!” – Lukashenka assured her and recommended to drink plenty of water.
Recently, the incumbent head of state could be seen in coronavirus departments of hospitals throughout Belarus (“The President was interested, is interested and will be interested in this issue,” his press secretary explains), however, the “healthy optimism” that Lukashenko speaks of is not always can be seen even in official statistics from the Ministry of Health.
In October, the average daily incidence of Covid-19 (about 2 thousand cases) became a record for the entire time since the beginning of the pandemic. Moreover, every day in the country, according to official figures, 13-17 people die. In the first wave, the Ministry of Health reported a thousand cases of infections a day on average.
In total, since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 590 thousand cases of Covid-19 have been registered in Belarus. During this time, more than 4500 people have died “by the demonstrated coronavirus infection” (this is the wording used by the Belarusian Ministry of Health).
For comparison, in a neighboring comparison, more than 5.5 thousand people died from Covid-19 in Belarus, three times less, in Poland – almost 77 thousand.
In Belarus, about 20% of the population is fully vaccinated. In Latvia, which announced a new lockdown, 51.8% of the country’s population received both vaccinations.
From the very beginning of the pandemic, Belarusian oppositionists and independent media accused the authorities of hushing up the actual figures on the coronavirus. They spoke about the underestimated statistics on morbidity in Minsk. They cited unnamed doctors for safety reasons.
The Medical Solidarity Fund of Belarus claims that the statistics of morbidity and mortality from coronavirus in the country can be underestimated dozens of times. “Every day, only in each of the hospitals redesigned for Covid-19 in Minsk die from 5 to 15 patients,” the BBC was told in this fund.
On October 12, Zerkalo published a material with data on coronavirus in Minsk, according to which more than three thousand cases of Covid-19 were detected in the capital on October 7. The Ministry of Health claims that at that time 1,000 rubles were registered throughout Belarus. 995 patients with Covid-19.
From butter to cancer
Alexander Lukashenko outlined his “special position” regarding the coronavirus immediately after the first country began to rapidly close its borders.
“It is difficult for one person to walk in the world, especially against the tide. But I still made a decision that we should not close. Western countries, which declared lockdown, “beaten dogs”.
At the same time, the incumbent president began to distribute advice on how to “properly” be treated for coronavirus: the lazy – to get their breath, the sick – to eat butter (it contains fats, according to Lukashenka), sit by the fire, or at least ventilate the room.
In March 2020, a video footage of one of the state-owned media outlets circulated on social media, in which Lukashenka, in a hockey uniform with a stick, told a journalist his version of the existence of a pandemic: “Do you see the coronavirus? So I don’t see it”!
In Belarus, a victory parade was held on May 9 to the fact that the march was canceled even in Russia, and four months later, Alexander Lukashenko (at that time “who had had a coronavirus naah”, as he himself said) stated that 97% of Belarusians tolerate Covid-19 asymptomatically …
However, after the presidential elections in August 2020, Lukashenko unexpectedly changed his position: at a meeting with Vladimir Putin, he reflected on the threat of coronavirus and even thanked the Russian president for giving Belarusians the Sputnik V vaccine. Lukashenka himself said that he would be vaccinated only with the Belarusian vaccine, which they promise to start in 2023.
In December 2020, Belarus announced the closure of land borders – though only for the exit. Many experts, who said the decision was not motivated by concerns for public health, was aimed at quelling the protests that gripped the country after the presidential elections (restrictions on leaving the country to this day).
Recently, Alexander Lukashenko put forward his hypothesis about the benefits of the disease. Speaking to the medical staff of one city hospital, he said that Covid-19 can treat cancer.
“Oncology has dropped significantly, not because people do not seek medical help, but because something like this is happening,” Lukashenka said.
Russian and Belarusian oncologists noticed that the head of state is at least “wrong” – in the context of a pandemic, there are not enough resources for patients with other diagnoses worldwide.
Presidents with and without botox
Alexander Lukashenko, when the situation with the coronavirus in the country of an amazing gas situation, Alexander Lukashenko once again failed in violation of the “draconian methods”. often appears without a mask).
Soon after that, announcements on observance of the mask regime disappeared from the metro cars (the Mediazona correspondent reported that the memos were also torn from the windows of trolley buses and buses, and on October 22, the Ministry of Health canceled the mandatory wearing of masks.
“Lukashenka wrote out a prescription for how to survive the coronavirus for both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” said the presenter of one of the state TV channels two days later.
On October 23, the pro-government STANDARD TV channel, Yevgeny, the presenter, said that Lukashenko was “the only president who did not hide from the people in bunkers in Kovid, but from ministers and journalists using teleconferences,” probably alluding to Vladimir Putin, who is less public during the pandemic and conducted it remotely.
“Sleepless nights of experiences reflected on the head of the head of state – he does not use botox,” the presenter added.
The words got into Russian social networks and media, Pustovoy and his colleagues had to back down and say that they did not mean Vladimir Putin, but Joe Biden.
Canteen without oxygen and vaccines as a way to escape
It is difficult to find out about the situation with the coronavirus on the spot: doctors in Belarus are afraid to communicate with journalists, fearing dismissals and criminal cases. Basically, information comes from those who managed to go abroad or anonymously.
The BBC Russian Service has asked the crown for a comment on the situation with the Ministry of Health of Belarus; no response had been received at the time of publication.
Co-founder of the e-Health platform (which provides online consultations with doctors) and representative of the opposition Foundation for Medical Solidarity, Vladimir Svirkov, tells the BBC that the Belarusian authorities “deny problems with the coronavirus as such.”
“Everyone understands the complexity of the situation, up to the Minister of Health, everyone understands that there is an epidemiological catastrophe in the country,” says Vladimir Svirkov.
He believes that the current wave of coronavirus in Belarus is the most severe since the beginning of the pandemic: “The shortage of personnel is higher, among unvaccinated mortals, the fatigue of the medical staff is felt, the equipment of hospitals is worse, with more patients.” [Дельта-лайт, который в стране впервые выявили 25 октября] Was back in early summer, but ignoring the problem to what we have. ”
According to the Medical Solidarity Foundation, departments for the treatment of patients with Covid-19 in Belarus are overloaded by more than 20%. The chambers are equipped with compartments in the corridors and dining rooms, where there are no outlet points for oxygen supply at all.
The Ministry of Health paints a different picture: the rate of increase in the incidence of coronavirus is decreasing, the number of patients on mechanical ventilation is decreasing by several people per day, for example, in the Grodno region, only 35% of all beds are used to treat patients with Covid-19.
At the same time, on October 18, the Ministry of Health announced the suspension of all medical care in order to “protect patients from infection with Covid-19.” However, Lukashenko criticized this decision, and on October 25, the Ministry of Health canceled it.
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After Alexander Lukashenko’s statement on weakening the mask regime, the Belarusian opposition decided to take the coronavirus issue “into its own hands.” The headquarters of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya asked for help with the supply of Western vaccines to Belarus.
In Belarus they joke now that [оппозиционера] “Bchbshnika” can be built on the basis of the mask he is wearing in public places.
According to Lukashenka, people need vaccination with Pfizer or Moderna vaccines only in order to get a passport and go there. [на Запад]receive instructions from their own. “
“Go there and get vaccinated,” Lukashenka summed up.