‘Dream on’. COVID-19 in presidential hockey team, but Lukashenka not to self-isolate
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka feels well, his press secretary Natallya Eysmant said when reached by RIA Novosti.
As reported earlier, Dzmitry Myaleshka, a member of Lukashenka’s hockey team, got the novel coronavirus and was hospitalised with pneumonia.
According to Eysmant, the Belarusian leader did not contact the infected person. The spokeswoman claims that Myaleshka fell ill a week after the amateur hockey tournament held by the Presidential Sports Club had been over. It should be noted that April, 11 was the last day of the tournament, and Alyaksandr Lukashenka took part in the final game.
In her opinion, it is unessential the president be tested for the coronavirus.
“The president has not been and not going to be in self-isolation, work remotely and so on,” Natallya Eysmant stressed.
When asked about Lukashenka’s health state, the spokeswoman said:
“He won’t give you the satisfaction! If you want any proof of his well-being, have a look at the presidential schedule, in particular, watch the reports by Belarusian TV about today’s visit to an enterprise in Babruysk.
No additional measures to protect the players will be taken; after the rest, the presidential team will resume training, she added.
As of April 22, there have been 7,281 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Belarus (+558 over the day before); 58 patients have died. However, the Belarusian authorities have not introduced any tough quarantine measures yet. The head of state believes that imposing a nationwide lockdown would not improve the situation in Belarus. In his opinion, such steps might deal a crippling blow to the daily life of Belarusians.
The WHO experts concluded at the end of its assessment of the country’s response to the pandemic that Belarus needs to introduce community-wide steps to increase physical distancing, e.g. postponing large gatherings, placing in quarantine contacts of confirmed patients, introducing options for teleworking, and distance learning for educational institutions, etc.
