SMOLEVICHI DISTRICT, 3 April (BelTA) – Mass events are not banned in Belarus, yet nobody forces people to attend them. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement as he visited Smolevichi District, Minsk Oblast on 3 April, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “Nobody forces people to go there. We offer a choice: feel free to come if you want. No means no.”
He referred to an amateur ice hockey championship going on in Belarus as an example. A team of the head of state is taking part in it. According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, cadets of military education institutions wanted to attend one of the latest games. They were allowed to do so since they live in barracks together and if they sat as a group in the stands, it would hardly make a difference. But after the game Aleksandr Lukashenko gave instructions to check the health of the young people. “Not a single problem. Why should we ban mass events? It is not our way of doing things,” he stressed.
The president pointed out that the introduction of a strict quarantine and a curfew in Belarus will not improve the situation in the country. “Imagine we are confined to an apartment tomorrow. A family of five to seven people. If one of them is ill, we just make him or her to stay in the apartment with everyone else. What happens next? The coronavirus infection will spread onto all the people within hours. If you were alone, stayed outdoors, breathed, tried to survive the coronavirus infection on your feet, tomorrow you will pass on the virus to the entire family in this stuffy apartment,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. The head of state is convinced that a quarantine will result in exactly these consequences.
“In Moscow people already need passes to leave an apartment or a house. Despite the pass system people will always communicate with each other. You will not be able to control the situation in one staircase. Imagine seven people in one family and five in another one. If they stay in touch in a stuffy environment, all of them will be sick. And will be hospitalized and given artificial lung ventilation. Isn't it possible? 100% probable,” Aleksandr Lukashenko believes. “We've always been taught that if a person goes down with an acute respiratory infection, he or she should spend outdoors as much time as possible. Fill your lungs with air, bring your kids to a forest or a park instead of confining them to an apartment. We don't do that.”
The president stressed that the Belarusian government refuses to enforce a mass quarantine not because the government fails to understand the severity of the situation. “We are not talking about the coronavirus only. We are going past the peak of seasonal diseases (thank god, the mortality rate is declining), and people should be careful with their health right now,” the president said. “Everything depends on how you live, we don't want to confine this life to some cage. It won't work. It would be stupid. Why is it being done? Let's talk about it later.”
