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‘Belarusians Distrust Lukashenka, Do Everything Contrary To Him’

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‘Belarusians Distrust Lukashenka, Do Everything Contrary To Him’
VOLHA ULEVICH

The story of the Belarusian woman from Spain, where the COVID-19 is raging.

“This is war” - this is the way Belarusian journalist and guide Volha Ulevich, who has been living in Catalonia for 8 years, describes the situation with the coronavirus pandemic in Spain. Volha, like all residents of this state, has been living in the conditions of a strict quarantine for 11 days, Radio Svaboda reports.

She tells how, with the increase in mortality from COVID-19 in Spain, the attitude towards the threat of the coronavirus infection has radically changed, and advises Belarusians not to be afraid to lose money, and go to quarantine or self-isolate as soon as possible. In Spain on March 25 there were more than 42 thousand people infected with COVID-19, 3434 people died, including 738 in the last day.

“At first I was not serious, I even conducted excursions when there were already a lot of infected people”

Volha Ulevich daily describes the situation with the coronavirus pandemic in Spain on her Facebook page:

- I'm trying to convince people through social networks that they would rather change their minds. At first I was also carefree, I watched as the number of victims in Italy was growing. I thought that these were Italians, who, indeed, are more frivolous than the Spaniards. Although both southern peoples, but there is a difference between them, sometimes very significant. I thought that Italians might not quarantine.

When quarantine was introduced in Spain, we had about 300 patients. The quarantine was very tough - everyone really stayed home. The quarantine began on Saturday, but many people from Barcelona and Madrid left for their houses at the seaside on Thursday and Friday. Children were sent on a 14-day vacation. People decided that if children are on vacation, then they can do it for themselves. As a result, we have a huge number of cases of the coronavirus - in a town in southern Spain, where all of Madrid have come. And the most difficult situation is now in Madrid.

My opinion changed at one time, with the beginning of quarantine. At first I was not serious, I even conducted some excursions when there were already a lot of infected people, but there were no dead. More tourists came, walked. It was like it’s not about us. I see the same attitude now among those who live in Belarus or Russia. True, many people quarantined themselves and did it absolutely right, since sending the country to quarantine is a lot of money, which the Belarusian authorities, everyone already knows, will not do.

The state government is responsible for the situation, all numbers come to it, it must make this decision. We are in Spain, therefore, they were chosen as the most intelligent, so that in these difficult times they would show us how to live properly, how to be saved, how to stock up.

“Even after two weeks at the hospital, those infected should stay at home for another two weeks.”

Now Volha Ulevich is on quarantine in her house in the Catalan town near Girona:

- In the town where I live, a week ago there was a person ill with the coronavirus. The recovery process is very long - a minimum of two weeks, or even more. Those patients who are discharged from the hospital after two weeks, are quarantined at home for another two weeks. It is not yet known what happens next. Allegedly, it is believed that within two weeks after recovery you can still be a carrier and infect.

We are now in a very difficult psychological state. We’ve been quarantined for more than 10 days, and the numbers only go up. Over the night before last, more than 500 people died. In Madrid, there are queues at the crematorium, because the city is big. Over the past two days, 416 people have died in Madrid, of which 90% are from the coronavirus, but there are other dead as on any day. Now they are being put in refrigerators in the Ice Palace. Cremation takes 3-4 hours, 60-70 people can be cremated per day, and there are 416 of them.

“There are no services in the temples, the dead are not given requiem”

The Belarusian journalist says that the Spanish authorities are not hiding anything from the people:

- Tomorrow the numbers of victims will only be greater. Every day I wake up and think it's scary to turn on the TV. At first it was scary to hear that 200 people had died, then 400 people had died. And this is not about Italy, but about us. On March 25, there were 738 dead. This is some kind of unrealistic situation.

At first, I observed the first skeptical reaction of my friends from Belarus - they say that everything has been invented, it is necessary to be treated with bleach or something else. Some time passes, the person goes deeper into the information, sees the trucks that are transporting the dead old men to Bergamo, and understands everything. The Olympic Games, Easter celebrations are abolished, there will be no processions, there will not be a single person in the square in Vatican. There are no services in the temples; the dead are not given requiem. They do not come to say goodbye, only a few people - a wife or daughter. Mostly men die.

“Journalists demanded that they give detailed information about every dead person”

Volha Ulevich explains how the media and authorities interact during the pandemic in Spain:

- Journalists demanded that there be several press-conferences a day, that they give detailed information about each deceased (all pathologies) - the ministers listened and began to give information more often and in more detail.

Now no one goes anywhere, they introduced huge fines. The quarantine was announced until April 12, the Easter, but no country will stop on this. Well, it would be good if it’s a month or a month and a half, not several months, because we have not reached the peak yet. And we will reach it with a larger figure than Italy.

I am an individual entrepreneur, I work in the tourism sector. I have closed, I do not work. Now I am absolutely without income. On the fifth day after the introduction of the quarantine, the government decided to send 200 thousand million euros to the Spanish economy to pay those who go to quarantine, to pay unemployment benefits.

This crisis is temporary. We are being prepared that it can last 3-4 months, six months, until September. And then everything will restart. Business owners are asked to save jobs for people, to pay them financial assistance. A moratorium on mortgages has been introduced.

The head of government appealed to the homeowners who rent accommodation so that they do not evict people who have lost their jobs and cannot pay the rent. The Spaniards are not Belarusians, almost no one keeps money in reserve here. Another mentality. A person who has lost his job can live a month, but two - unlikely.

“Don't be afraid to lose money. It’s necessary to close anyway.”

Based on the Spanish experience, Volha gives some tips:

- Do not be afraid to lose money. I checked it on myself. If you face some kind of decision, usually associated with the loss of money - close the company, lose money, do not be afraid of it. All the same, everything will end up having to be closed, only then it will already lead to the loss of human life. Decide in favor of safety of life. It is necessary to close anyway. And it needs to be done now.

It seems to me that Belarusians got their bearings, and many at the private level made a decision - they don’t let children into school, they have isolated themselves. It needs to happen at the state level. Maybe not to close everything, but to give people masks, respirators, to keep a distance of 2 meters between workplaces. To provide antiseptics. I know that in many places this is done.

“Where does a Belarusian pensioner go?”

Volha Ulevich explains the high mortality from the coronavirus in Italy and Spain by the fact that there are a lot of old people who lead an active lifestyle:

- In the morning, 80-90-year-olds are in the bar, they have lunch in the restaurant, and in the evening they watch football in the cafe. They hung out and became infected as a result. And Belarusian pensioners already live in a quarantine. Where does our senior citizen go? Once or twice a week to the store. So this is a quarantine. Now we have been quarantined, and it means we have no right to go anywhere except to the store. If before we were not limited by the number of trips to the store, now there are norms. I bought stuff and stay at home, think about others. If you are not afraid to get sick, think - you can be a carrier, you are like a taxi driver for this coronavirus.

If you want to die, die, but there are other people. The police in small towns sent out messages that people are even criminally liable if an old man they live with dies due to quarantine violations. When a son lives with his mother, who is 76 years old, she (this has already been confirmed in thousands of cases) will not survive the coronavirus, therefore either children or the nurse will be held criminally liable if they infect her due to the violation of the quarantine. Not now, of course, but later these actions will be assessed as criminally irresponsible or due to chance ... Ill-conceived, irresponsible actions can lead to the death of an old person.

War. This is actually a war. You see the numbers of the dead, you see that the crematoriums cannot cope, you see the new hospitals, as in China, for 5,500 thousand people in Madrid, where the most difficult situation is. Oddly enough, in Barcelona, a tourist city, the situation is not this horrible. But in the village of Igualada near Barcelona, there are now about half the deaths in Catalonia. This village under the holy mountain of Montserrat is cordoned off around the perimeter, you can’t enter there, you can’t leave it for more than 10 days. We all stay at home, the police cars are patrolling the streets. If you are going to work, you need to provide a document. And they’ll check if you really go there.

“Belarusians do not believe Lukashenka and do everything contrary to what he says”

In Spain, people trust the authorities and the media, listen to the advice and recommendations of the authorities, Volha Ulevich notes:

- In Belarus, the opposite is true. If Lukashenka said on television that there was no coronavirus and that everyone should ride a tractor, people react as follows - we are doomed, it’s better to stay at home. And if Lukashenka spoke and said: “Guys, don’t go to school, people, don’t go to work, I allow everyone to do anything,” then people would immediately go to work and to school. Our people have a different psychology. We are told one thing, and we, using all our historical experience, make the opposite decisions. And in Spain, as the authorities said, that’s how people do it. This, by the way, helps a lot to live, even in peacetime.

They ask me, what if a tourist does come? Let them come, but all the hotels are closed, they will be converted into hospitals. All restaurants are closed, too.

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