In spite of the coronavirus threat, teaching and learning activities continue at Belarusian universities.
Over 16,000 Belarusians have signed the petition to introduce distance learning in the country. The authors urge the Health Ministry, the Education Ministry and President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to bring in effective measures against the pandemic. The petitioners also insist on taking compulsory tests from students who come from abroad and placing them under a 14-day quarantine; a ban on mass events in university buildings and disinfecting dormitories are also on the list of demands.
Meanwhile, activists from the opposition Youth Bloc are calling on students not to be afraid of boycotting classes.
“We are demanding the basic thing from the state. We want it to protect us,” they said on Telegram.
For the time being, e-learning has been introduced by several faculties of the Belarusian State University (BSU). Although five students were tested positive for COVID-19, the university did not cancel onsite classes. Since Saturday, 240 BSU students have been under medical supervision.
The ‘zero’ patient in Belarus was a student of the Belarusian National Technical University from Iran who had got infected while being in his native country. When the first coronavirus case was reported, the university was closed for two weeks.
According to Belarusian officials, no quarantine is planned. A few days ago, the ministry said that the closure of the border was unable to prevent the entry of coronavirus, as ‘7 out of 8 cases of imported coronavirus infection were found precisely among the Belarusian citizens, returning to their homeland from abroad’. As for the possibility of shutting down kindergartens and primary schools over the virus, the ministry stresses that children get sick much less often and do not die of coronavirus at all.
