On May 25, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka blasted bloggers who had recently reported about shortchanging doctors who have to work amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“On the so-called fake channels, Telegram channels and so on, they have been picking the authorities up on anything. They can inflate a scandal, claiming that in some institution doctors, teachers or someone else are unpaid. Yesterday I asked Natallya Ivanauna [top official Natallya Kachanava] to contact heads of all regional executive committees and warn them in a decent way: if there is a problem, it should be solved on the spot,” Lukashenka said.
According to the Belarusian leader, the main goal of Telegram bloggers who make posts about the problems in the healthcare system is ‘hyping’.
“These doctors do not matter to them. The main thing is to hype. They just want a lot of hype around the situation. This is not our way. But one should be patient. We will deal with them. I told you yesterday that the time would come and we would put everyone in their place,” he promised.
In addition, Alyaksandr Lukashenka commented on the recent protests of Babruisk-based medics who demanded the Presidential Administration explain how much money the state should pay them for treating COVID-19 patients.
“If they really work and they are involved in these epidemic processes, these people need to be supported,” he stated.
Last week, Babruysk doctors gathered to express outrage to the film crew of the state TV channel Belarus-1, who came to shoot a story about the additional payments in COVID-19 conditions. According to them, the story turned out to be untrue.
As of May 25, the total of 37,144 coronavirus cases have been confirmed by Belarusian health professionals; 204 COVID-19 patients have passed away.
