Sealed Mystery: How Belarus Suffered from Coronavirus

What are the Belarusian authorities so afraid of?

According to official data, the first coronavirus patient in Belarus died on the night of March 30 to March 31, 2020. Summing up the interim results of the pandemic within the framework of the “Year with Covid” special project, it would be logical to start with the number of compatriots whom we have lost due to the new disease. However, there is still no even an approximate answer to this question, Salidarnasts writes.

No, of course, there is data from the Ministry of Health. But they do not inspire much confidence.

The reason for doubts, in particular, is the total mortality in our country in April-June 2020. Official statistics also concealed this information, but the cat got out of the bag in the statistics published by the UN. The increase in the number of deaths in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2019 amounted to 5605 deaths! In June, the mortality rate increased almost one and a half times!!!

Let us explain what general mortality has to do with it. Since 2015, approximately the same number of people have died in Belarus every year. In 2019, for example, about 120 thousand died. And, if in 2020 this figure is significantly higher, then the question immediately arises: why?

Until last year, the National Statistical Committee of Belarus published its annual statistics clearly. At the beginning of each period, the site could see data for the previous one: on the number of marriages, divorces, newborns, and deaths. Information for 2019 was published by Belstat in January 2020. How many died last year is still unknown. Apparently, there is something to hide.

Let's go back to the data we know for the second quarter of 2020. So, the excess mortality (the one that is higher than usual) in April-June is 5605. The Ministry of Health reported that during this period in Belarus 398 patients died "with several chronic diseases with identified coronavirus infection." 14 times less!

Former chief cardiologist of the Ministry of Health Aliaksandr Mrochek explained that the increase in deaths was attributed not to coronavirus, but to other reasons (presumably - diseases of the circulatory system) - since the Belarusian authorities at that time vigorously reported that they had coped with covid, with might and main promoting their own unique way of dealing with the scourge: no lockdowns, isolation or forced spacing. Aliaksandr Lukashenka said at all: "No one will die from the coronavirus in our country."

So what and why does the state hide from its citizens? Afraid of crashing the perfect covid-fighting model? To sow panic by showing true mortality associated with a pandemic? But the number of deaths is openly named in the overwhelming majority of countries in the world.

As of March 29, according to Johns Hopkins University, more than 547,000 people have died from coronavirus in the United States, more than 126,000 in the UK, more than 107,000 in Italy, more than 96,000 in Russia, and more than 75,000 in Germany. In Poland - more than 51 thousand, in Ukraine - more than 33 thousand, in Lithuania (where the population is three times less than in Belarus) - more than 3.5 thousand people.

In the States, the media publish hundreds of thousands of names of fellow citizens who have died from coronavirus on the covers, trying to honor the memory of the dead as much as possible. And in Belarus (the country that defeated the covid), even the dry total number of deaths for the reporting period becomes a sealed secret.