Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko: Belarus’ experience of combating COVID-19 offers valuable lessons

MINSK, 8 October (BelTA) – Belarus’ strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and the experience it has gained are valuable for the entire world, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a meeting to discuss the preparedness of the healthcare system to confront the rise in the incidence of COVID-19 and seasonal respiratory diseases, BelTA has learned.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that during the peak of the disease in the spring Belarus’ healthcare providers came up with good treatment solutions to tackle coronavirus. “The experience we have gained is invaluable. And the path that we chose is also invaluable for the whole world today,” the president said. “Indeed, no one will thank you for the path we have gone down, for the methods we used to treat our people, for not isolating them or imposing a lockdown, for encouraging people to be in the fresh air. However, if you go to a pharmacy or a store, be sure to take a mask with you,” the president said.

The head of state noted: today other countries have chosen a similar path to follow as they have canceled quarantine measures. “Thus, we have gained invaluable experience of combating coronavirus and it must be used today,” he stressed. Aleksandr Lukashenko added that the Healthcare Ministry should draft its own recommendations, but at the same time it is necessary to refrain from going into extremes. “Let's not recommend what is impossible to implement,” the president said.

“I want to make my position clear: today I have no plans to isolate the country and impose a lockdown. Had we done it in February, March or April, we would have faced the consequences: we would not have jobs, we would deliver a heavy blow on the economy, we would have no salaries to pay. And again, this is not a choice between bad and completely bad or bad and good: life does not put up to such a test  today,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.

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