MINSK, 13 April (BelTA) - People in hospitals should not give up even if they tested positive for coronavirus, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Head of the Belarus President Administration Igor Sergeyenko, Chairwoman of the Council of the Republic Natalya Kochanova and Healthcare Minister Vladimir Karanik on 13 April, BelTA has learned.
The head of state remarked that he would like to discuss forthcoming events, in particular, political and military ones. “And we have invited the minister to report on the situation in the healthcare industry. I want to emphasize that today, of course, I want to know what is going on with this coronavirus psychosis. I am especially interested in the situation involving other diseases,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “I want to remind you once again that we can seriously hurt and offend hospital patients with other diseases, namely, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, asthma, diabetes, typical pneumonia which is also common in this period. Therefore, I would like to discuss a whole set of issues. And I reiterate that we, especially the Healthcare Ministry, should not forget about these people.”
“For the first time, I want to address (a lot has been said about doctors; we are grateful to those people who are spending days and nights in hospitals, who are treating patients in this dificult period) our people who are lying in hospitals and are suffering from non-respiratory diseases. I want to address all of them. There has been information in recent time that people start to give up because of this psychosis, especially the coronavirus psychosis. They say that some patients have already stopped fighting for their lives. The minister knows what it means when a person stops fighting for their life,” the head of state said.
“People are afraid. Therefore, I want to tell them the following thing: no one died from coronavirus in our country. No one! They died from a bunch of chronic diseases they had been suffering from,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized. “WHO specialists, they saw it. Those diseases were cardiovascular inefficiency, pulmonary failure. And diabetes. And other compliucated diagnoses. And there was coronavirus on top of that.”
“Coronavirus is not even a precursor. It was the environment where their chronic diseases were developing. This is the reason. Therefore, I am saying that no one died from coronavirus in our country. We are fighting for every person, as I have promised. And I am grateful to the Healthcare Ministry and our doctors for that. If we did not fight for every person, there would be more deaths,” the head of state is convinced.
Aleksandr Lukashenko addressed all patients in hospitals, especially those with coronavirus, once again. “They should not even worry. No one will die from coronavirus in our country. I am saying this in public. This is my firm convinction judging by the analysis not only of the previous years. We already have this year's experience. And, from our experience, from Chinese, American, European experience (of how this disease is running) we see how we should work. Therefore, we will do our best to fight for every person. If a person stays positive, they will be healthy,” the president concluded.
