Coronavirus threatens to hit Lukashenko
As of March 14, 27 confirmed cases of infection with the COVIN-19 coronavirus were recorded in Belarus. Another five students of the Belarusian State University tested positive, but the diagnosis has not yet been made.
It seems that there are not so many, especially when compared with Western Europe, where the number of infected people is measured in thousands and tens of thousands. But in the Baltic countries and Ukraine neighboring Belarus, the number of confirmed carriers of the virus is even lower, and extraordinary quarantine measures are already being introduced there - borders are closed, mass events are cancelled, educational institutions are suspended. Even in Moscow, where more people live than in Belarus and the statistics on the virus are lower, a ban has been introduced on mass events and free attendance at schools and kindergartens.
In comparison with these countries, Belarus looks like an island of prosperity - the borders are open, trains and flights have been canceled mainly to those countries that have already closed their borders, and the restriction on public events is advisory in nature. Educational institutions operate as usual, and attendance is mandatory. But this prosperity does not particularly please Belarusian citizens. Against the backdrop of radical measures and no less radical statements by leading politicians in Europe, their neighbors and their own alarming statistics, they feel poorly protected and demand strengthening of the fight against infection.
It was the lack of quarantine in educational institutions that became the subject of the most acute criticism of the Belarusian authorities. Any educational institution is a closed space where a large number of young and socially active people spend a significant part of their time, constantly in contact with each other. From an infection point of view, this is an extremely dangerous place. Despite all the measures, judging by the incoming information, universities have become one of the main centers of the spread of the virus. So, just yesterday, 240 BSU students from among first-level contacts were quarantined in Minsk hospitals. There is information that something similar is happening at the Belarusian State Economic University.
However, now not every information should be trusted. There are rumors throughout the republic about overcrowded hospitals and famous people dying from infection. A slight delay in the publication of the next report from the Ministry of Health gave rise to rumors that the information was classified.
In general, the situation is nervous and the population does not have complete confidence in official information. One of the main factors fueling this nervousness is precisely the quarantine measures against students. Photos of queues of ambulances and doctors in protective suits near university dorms are spreading across the Internet with the most panicked comments.
Polls taking place on the Internet record more than 90% support for strengthening quarantine measures in general and in relation to educational institutions in particular. The number of signatures under the online appeal to the Ministry of Health demanding their transfer to distance learning in 2 days exceeded 10 thousand - an unprecedented case for Belarus. But despite all this, the ministry stubbornly refuses to do this. He explains this by saying that the situation is under control, and children and adolescents are not a risk group for coronavirus. Meanwhile, even without symptoms of the disease, they are carriers of the virus and thereby increase the risk of infection and illness for their loved ones.
The position of the Ministry of Health does not seem logical. Opposition journalist Artem Gorbatsevich, citing “credible sources,” reports that Lukashenko himself spoke out against the closure of educational institutions during yesterday’s meeting with Health Minister Vladimir Karanik. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but it is very similar to the truth.
Be that as it may, if the epidemiological situation in Belarus worsens significantly, Lukashenko will not be envied. He opposed flight restrictions and border closures, called on doctors to fight the epidemic “without noise and hubbub,” and said that “we always have this infection in the spring, even if not like this, but different.” If we have the same morbidity figures as in Western Europe, he will be reminded of all this. The President is afraid of panic, but things are already such that panic is generated not by radical measures, but by their absence. In modern Belarus, the introduction of quarantine is also becoming a factor of political stability. The earlier the better.
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