‘Real Situation With COVID-19 Strongly Differs From Health Ministry’s Reports’

The moment of truth may come very soon.

The coronavirus epidemic is spreading lightning fast across Belarus. Only in the Brest region the foci of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Baranavichy, Brest, Pinsk district, Mazyr and other places. At the same time, the authorities hide the real picture of the spread and the extent of infection.

Belarusians actually have to “battle” to receive information about the coronavirus epidemic in the country. Thanks to the courage of doctors, independent journalists and bloggers, it became known about the disastrous state of hospitals in Vitsebsk, where the situation could go according to the Italian scenario, as well as about Minsk clinics crowded with patients with pneumonia.

The website Charter97.org spoke with famous blogger from Biaroza Aliaksandr Kabanau, who is investigating the real situation with the coronavirus in Brest and the Brest region.

- You said in an interview with Radio Racyja that medical institutions, following the orders from the above, hide in the diagnoses the real information about the coronavirus in Belarus. How higher may the number of the infected be than the official statistics?

- The distortion of the situation in this matter is associated not only with deliberate diagnosis, in which the coronavirus is “hidden”. Many doctors, without knowing it, can greatly downplay the real statistics, because testing is not carried out with regard to every patient.

According to our data, if a person turns to doctors with initial symptoms of the coronavirus, such as fever and cough, they are most often refused, even if they are already infected.

Doctors have instructions from the Ministry of Health about who to take tests from, and this is a very narrow group of people, so we still don’t know the real number of the infected.

One thing is certain: in Belarus, in fact, there are much more cases of the coronavirus than we are told in the reports of the Ministry of Health. This is confirmed by the statistics of infected people both in the neighboring countries and in the world.

- In Vitsebsk and Minsk, hospitals are crowded with patients with a diagnosis of pneumonia. Bloggers manage to make a video, where an ambulance constantly delivers new infected. What does the situation with the coronavirus in the Brest region look like?

- According to our data, in the Brest region there has not yet been a severe outbreak coronavirus infection, as, for example, in Vitsebsk. But hospitals are already actively preparing to receive a large number of patients with COVID-19, remodeling some departments.

The increase in the incidence of “pneumonia” in the city is already significantly higher than the average.

In my opinion, now the biggest problem is that the population is not massively informed by the authorities about the dangers of the coronavirus. If you look at the same Brest, Pinsk, Baranavichy, Biaroza, it is extremely rare occasion when you meet masked people. People are careless, they are not afraid. This process has already been started to such an extent that I'm afraid we will have big problems soon.

In hospitals in Brest there are cases when entire families are officially hospitalized with “pneumonia”. It is not currently possible to find out a real diagnosis: tests are taken only when a person is already seriously ill. Again, the coronavirus test does not show results instantly.

To date, only one case of the coronavirus infection has been officially recorded in Brest. It’s hard to say the exact data, but I’m 100% sure that this is far from the only case in the city.

-What do people in Brest and the region say about the spread of the coronavirus? What cases have you personally encountered?

- Me and blogger Siarhei Piatrukhin constantly communicate with doctors on this subject. Initially, many of them, when we tried to find out the information, told us: guys, don’t worry, everything is fine with us. They themselves were ignorant. And some even wanted to remain ignorant: people always find it hard to believe in bad things. We had to give them various information about the coronavirus epidemic from the same Europe or from the USA.

But a certain period of time passed, about two to three weeks, and the situation radically changed. Doctors themselves already tell us that they are trying to get in touch with friends and relatives, and explain to them that they need to stay at home.

Their main message is that our healthcare system simply can not cope with a large flow of patients. Therefore, you need to disinfect hands, clothes, wear masks. Doctors are more serious about this, and are trying to work with people themselves, at least with friends, so that they continue to transmit information. People should be warned that the coronavirus is actually quite dangerous.

- Based on the real situation in Vitsebsk, doctors predict that the situation in Belarus could follow the Italian scenario. In your opinion, what will be the epidemic in Belarus?

- I personally am scared to even think about it. I know one thing: nothing good will come of it. As you know, in Vitsebsk, initially 10 or 15 people became infected with the coronavirus. According to the main version, these were people who work in a shoe factory, and traveled to Italy. From this case, the spread of infection began, and now the situation there is critical.

And the Brest region is a borderland. We have a lot of people. Some work as truckers, as well as those who simply traveled to markets in Poland or Germany. In connection with this situation, at least we had to introduce a ban on mass events, close schools, transfer universities to distance education, and cancel all these sports championships. This is not difficult, and quarantine would restrain the rapid spread of the virus, but no measures are being taken. I am not a doctor, but I have very disturbing expectations from all this.

From conversations with doctors, I can also say that many of them also have a very heavy foreboding. After all, they communicate with their colleagues abroad. Seeing the inaction of the authorities, they understand what this can lead to, so our doctors have a load on their souls. They cannot say how exactly the epidemic will develop, but they foresee that it will be something terrible.

- And how do you assess the inaction of the authorities against the backdrop of tight quarantine measures by our neighbors?

- For me, these are not real authorities. And the point is not that I never voted for them, it’s not about “elections”. We are talking about the fact that a person who is so irresponsible about the health and life of citizens is, by definition, not power, and neither all his officials are. I don’t even know what to call these people.

Many people right now are beginning to realize what our “power” is. I get the impression that Lukashenka, realizing that this year he will have “elections”, and he approaches them with a very bad economic situation and a large degree of discontent among the population, intentionally does not want to introduce quarantine.

Suppose there are many sick people, then you can introduce an emergency situation, and cancel the election. In another way, I can’t explain why he does it. Either the person has a serious mental disorder and does not understand the situation, or he does this specifically in order to announce the emergency situation.

- What do you think of the People’s Quarantine campaign announced by the leaders of the Belarusian opposition?

- We support this campaign. We are even its direct participants, because we ourselves are on People’s Quarantine: we are closed in the village and work remotely, but we keep in touch with people and make videos. We have started our Telegram channel to notify people and disseminate information.

I believe that this is correct and all people who can afford it should isolate themselves. Many say: who will work then, who will receive the salary? So, we must demand these payments from the government. And why, then, are these people needed if they cannot organize the payment of cash assistance in an epidemic and quarantine? There must be some reserve in the country to support people. I think if the government took such a step, they would have found money - maybe from the IMF or from Western countries. But when they say that “there is no coronavirus and there will be no quarantine,” naturally, no one will see the money.

Belarusian citizens in a situation of inaction of the authorities, in fact, are doing a lot. We just released a video the other day, where we published links to Telegram channels and to various popular initiatives to counter the epidemic.

Citizens themselves organize, notify others, someone provides doctors with free housing, someone takes care of the elderly. Lists are compiled and activists go to the shops instead of retirees, and buy medicines for them.

Already quite a lot of people who are engaged in fundraising or buy protective masks, gear, antiseptics for their money and all this is taken to hospitals, directly to doctors. When doctors learned of such an initiative, they drop information, phone numbers, and lists of what they need from people in these public places. Citizens are actively involved in this campaign.

This, of course, is not enough; decisive measures are needed at the state level, as is done in Western countries. But since we actually do not have state power in an epidemic, I think that it is citizens who can change the situation with their initiatives and responsible approach.

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