The COVID-19 pandemic in Belarus may reach its climax in late April-early May, Health Minister Uladzimir Karanik said on Thursday.
“We have projections and action plans for various scenarios. We think we will see the peak in late April-early May,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes the minister.
According to him, the major task is to fend off the snowballing increase in the COVID-19 and prevent the excessive burden on the healthcare system.
“In all regions of Belarus, the situation remains manageable. Some regions are facing much tension, some less,” Karanik said when delivering a speech in the lower house of the Belarusian parliament.
With every passing day, the number of COVID-19 paients is growing at an increased pace. As of April 9, the number of the infected with COVID-19 has totalled to 1,486 in the country. According to the Belarusian Health Ministry, 1,331 patients are being treated in hospitals; 139 have recovered; 16 persons have died. Belarus’ Vitsebsk region ranks second after Minsk in terms of the number of patients with coronavirus. It is also leading in the coronavirus fatalities along with Minsk. As reported earlier, Minsk infectious diseases hospital is almost full due to the coronavirus outbreak; the Belarusian military forces have set up a field hospital near Lepel (Vitsebsk region) in case the situation gets out of control.
On April 7, Minsk-based intensivist Katsyaryna told belsat.eu about the epidemic situation in Minsk and regions. According to her, many Belarusian medics are ‘sitting on a volcano’ and the country may be facing a ‘perfect storm’. In her opinion, the epidemic has not reached its peak in Belarus; there will be more coronavirus cases and deaths, almost everyone may get sick, the health professional believes.
On April 8, Minsk City Executive Committee approved a plan to ‘prevent and reduce the spread of acute respiratory infections, including those caused by COVID-19’. The list of measures includes the ban on holding mass events; the recommendation to switch to distance learning; the parents’ right to decide whether or not to send their child to school/kindergarten, etc. But still, imposing strict quarantine measures does not seem to be on the Belarusian government’s agenda as yet.
However, there are splits over placing schools under quarantine, because working people cannot leave their children unsupervised, Uladzimir Karanik claims.
“Opinion polls show that 40% of parents are against extending the school holidays,” he added.
If Belarus imposes severe quarantine measures when the death rate is 18 per week, it would contribute to decreasing the number of coronavirus deaths even to 1,860, the Eurasian States in Transition Research Center said in its recent report referring to the British experts from Imperial College London.
