Kopyl regional executive committee

The BRSM Youth Union has embarked on establishing a team of volunteers Kind Heart to help the elderly, Secretary of the BRSM Central Committee, coordinator of the youth movement Aleksandra Goncharova told a BelTA reporter. 

The Kind Heart team will include the most experienced BRSM members over 18 years of age. “In order to help the elderly, we have consolidated efforts with local social services centers and the Belarusian Red Cross Society that has a wealth of experience in these matters. Together we will be able to make our work more efficient,” Aleksandra Goncharova said. She noted that volunteers will first of all deliver groceries and medicines to the elderly.

BRSM and local social services centers will receive requests for delivering staple foods through dedicated hotlines. The food will be delivered by social workers and the Red Cross and BRSM volunteers. They will be provided with personal protective gear and name tags and will be properly instructed on how to protect themselves from the infection.

There are no grounds for COVID-19 panic in Belarus, Deputy Health Minister Yelena Bogdan told reporters, BelTA has learned.

“The situation is completely under control. There are no reasons for panic. We are working on isolating first-level contacts for 14 days in our institutions and second-level contacts if they show signs of the viral infection,” Yelena Bogdan said.

According to her, 22 people have tested negative and have completed or are completing treatment in healthcare institutions. Fifty-nine people are under medical observation. The patient with moderate symptoms is showing positive dynamics.

Yesterday, another case of coronavirus infection was detected in Gomel Oblast as all severe pneumonia cases are tested for COVID-19. The patient from Zhitkovichi does not require intensive care or auxiliary ventilation. Anti-epidemic activities are being carried out in the district as in all other cases. For the time being, COVID-19 cases have been detected in Grodno Oblast, Vitebsk and Minsk.

The average age of patients with COVID-19 in Belarus is 15 to 49, said Inna Karaban, deputy head of the department for hygiene, epidemiology and disease prevention at the Healthcare Ministry. The maximum number of cases has been registered in this age group. The oldest patient is 78 years old.

About 1,100 people, who were first-level contacts, have been isolated; about 8,800 second-level contacts are under medical supervision. All of them were identified in the course of the survey of patients with the confirmed diagnosis, said Inna Karaban. The internal affairs authorities were involved in some cases. By watching videos, for example, from institutions visited by a patient with COVID-19, we can identify as many of their contacts as possible in order to isolate and prevent the spread of infection in time, she added.

The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises Belarusians against all non-essential travel abroad due to the global impact of COVID-19 and warns about difficulties travelers might face when returning home, Anatoly Glaz, Head of the Information and Digital Diplomacy Office, Press Secretary of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the media as he commented on the situation with the return of Belarusian travelers home after a number of countries had imposed travel restrictions in an effort to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, BelTA has learned.

“According to the State Border Committee of Belarus, some 11,000 citizens of our country have gone abroad in the last three days alone. We emphasize that these trips are made after clear recommendations from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to refrain from overseas travel,” said the official representative of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Once again, we strongly advise our people against all but essential trips abroad during this difficult period. Citizens who take such steps should be aware that they are doing it at their own risk,” said Anatoly Glaz.

As of 19 March, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Belarusian foreign missions provided assistance in reaching home to more than 2,500 Belarusian citizens stranded abroad.

Belarusian diplomatic missions are currently focused on more than 1,500 Belarusian nationals abroad, who can potentially apply for the necessary assistance in the near future.

According to the ministry, in line with the head of state's instructions, close cooperation is maintained through the embassies of Belarus and Russia in Poland in order to address all issues related to the crossing of the Belarusian-Polish border by Russian citizens on their way home. The relevant interaction has also been built through other interested services.

The ministry and Belarusian diplomatic missions are also working to help Belarusian travelers to return home from Southeast Asian countries. According to initial estimates, more than 100 people are in the focus of our diplomatic missions.

The return of Belarusian citizens from Goa and Sri Lanka remains a complicated issue. The Belarusian embassy in India is in constant contact with Belarusian tourists. Consultations are held to keep the possibility for them to return home on previously booked flights.

Belarus remains in close contact with interested Russian agencies to find optimal ways to provide the transit of Belarusian citizens through the airport in Vnukovo. The parties have already outlined possible joint solutions to the situation. The Belarusian side expects a faster response from Russian partners to its requests.

The official representative of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that a visa-free entry for Belarusian citizens to Vietnam might be temporarily suspended from 21 March.

The first six patients to test positive for the novel coronavirus in Belarus has fully recovered and is out of isolation. The news was reported on the ONT TV channel, BelTA has learned.

Several more patients are getting ready to be discharged from hospital. Nine patients show symptoms of the COVID-19 infection. Eight of them display light symptoms of the virus and one patient is in intensive care. 37 more people who tested positive for the virus are currently under medical monitoring. They display no symptoms of the virus.

Some 1,960 people who have returned from at-risk countries remain under medical observation. Nearly 2,700 people who were under a 14-day surveillance have already been medically cleared. Seventeen out of all the coronavirus positive tests were imported. The rest is local transmission. The latest four cases have been imported from Spain, France, Germany and Saint Petersburg (they were identified at quarantine stations).

The Healthcare Ministry calls upon everyone who comes back to Belarus from at-risk countries to be honest when filling out questionnaires. "When crossing the border or arriving at the airport, travelers receive a questionnaire. They must fill it out and address the quarantine station. Medical workers and sanitary and epidemiologic specialists analyze the questionnaire and decide on collecting biomaterial from suspected COVID-19 patients if necessary,” Deputy Healthcare Minister Elena Bogdan said.

If a person has forgotten to visit the quarantine station, he or she can visit their territorial polyclinics and tell their doctors that they had been to at-risk countries (at the moment these are China, the Republic of Korea, Iran and Italy, but the list of such countries may change).

Every day from 150 to 230 people are tested for coronavirus at Minsk National Airport, head of the epidemiology department of Minsk City Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology Yekaterina Khomchenko told reporters on 17 March, BelTA has learned.

“Public health professionals and laboratory workers are deployed at quarantine stations of the airport. There are two stations – one for passengers arriving from the Commonwealth of Independent States and the other for citizens of non-CIS states. Another two mobile stations to collect biological materials can be set up at rush hours. Every day we examine from 150 to 230 people depending on the passenger flow,” Yekaterina Khomchenko said.

Control measures have been enhanced at the airport. Passengers undergo double thermal imaging control: at first people are screened on board a plane, after that the procedure is repeated in the airport building. Non-contact thermometers are used for more accurate measuring of temperature in people who showed increased temperature during thermal imaging.

People arriving from Italy, Iran, China and South Korea should fill in questionnaires. They should specify where exactly they have been and provide their contact details. They should also take tests. The information is forwarded to the quarantine stations. The quarantine stations process this information and notify medical professionals in the locations passengers are heading to about the need for medical observation of a particular person. Yekaterina Khomchenko noted that passengers take tests during customs control before they receive their luggage.

If people coming to Belarus from these four countries have not had an opportunity to take tests at the airport but feel healthy, they will be able to take tests later in Minsk Infectious Diseases Hospital or Children's Infectious Diseases Hospital. If a person falls sick, he/she needs to inform a local polyclinic and call an ambulance.

In order to minimize the possibility of importing the virus, the airport undertakes regular disinfection events, with a focus on most crowded areas of the airport.

The consular department of the Belarusian embassy in Poland is mulling over an opportunity to introduce additional buses from Warsaw to Brest and Grodno, the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Facebook, BelTA has learned.

The buses will be run by Teambus Travel on 18-24 March. The service will be launched given there are enough people eager to return home, the ministry said.

To make use of the service, it is needed to send your personal data (name and surname written as in the passport, and a telephone number) and your final destination “Brest” or “Grodno” to the email of the consular department This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., marked as “Going to Belarus”.

The expected time of departure from Warsaw – 12.00. The buses will depart from the Palace of Culture and Science.

Belarus will undertake all necessary measures to help its nationals return home amid the ongoing spread of the novel coronavirus, BelTA learned from spokeswoman of the Belarusian prime minister Aleksandra Isayeva.

“Belarus will undertake all necessary measures so that Belarusians who want to come home could do this,” Aleksandra Isayeva said.

In her words, on 15 March Russia informed Belarus on its plans to impose additional measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The countries agreed to coordinate their further actions.

As BelTA reported earlier, Belarus' Prime Minister Sergei Rumas and Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin held a telephone conversation on 15 March. Mikhail Mishustin informed Sergei Rumas on the measures undertaken in Russia to curb the virus' spread. The parties also discussed the transit of people and cargo amidst the COVID-19 epidemic.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen to 27 in Belarus, head of the main department for public health, medical evaluation and appeals at the Belarusian Healthcare Ministry Yelena Bogdan told reporters on 13 March, BelTA has learned.

“Coronavirus RNA has been identified in test samples of 27 patients. Three of them have already been cured. These are Belarus' first coronavirus patient and people who came in close contact with previously confirmed coronavirus cases,” Yelena Bogdan said. At present, 24 people are in hospital now. The condition of one of them can be classified as moderate. The others show mild symptoms or no symptoms at all.

A child having a severe pneumonia has been saved with the help of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine. That was the first time in Belarus the ECMO machine helped save a pneumonia patient, Konstantin Drozdovsky, Director of the National Research Center for Pediatric Surgery, told reporters, BelTA has learned.

“On 21 February Minsk Children's Infectious Diseases Hospital asked us to save a child who had an acute respiratory infection and a viral pneumonia. The patient was in critical condition and was connected to the ECMO machine. The ECMO machine is similar to a heart-lung by-pass machine. By that time the child hardly breathed and would have died without extracorporeal membrane oxygenation,” Konstantin Drozdovsky said.

This machine pumped and oxygenated the patient's blood for seven days. “When the infection was gone, the child started breathing. Seven days later we disconnected the ECMO machine and in another five days the patient no longer needed pulmonary ventilation. The patient's body functions were supported for another 5-7 days. At present the child is recovering. The child breathes, eats and feels better. It was the first time such an intervention was done on a 3.5-year old child with a pneumonia that could kill the child. Thus, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation helped save the child's life,” the doctor said.

This technology became available at the National Research Center for Pediatric Surgery several years ago. “We have two ECMO machines. In the coming two weeks we will receive another two. These machines were purchased for our hospital by the Healthcare Ministry. This will allow establishing a so-called ECMO center at our clinic. Thus, we will be able to save all children with a severe pneumonia that cannot be treated by other methods,” Konstantin Drozdovsky said.

The State Border Committee of Belarus and UNICEF have agreed to cooperate. The Belarusian agency and the international organization will soon sign the appropriate memorandum, BelTA learned from the press service of the State Border Committee.

Chairman of the State Border Committee Anatoly Lappo and UNICEF representative to Belarus Rashed Mustafa Sarwar held a working meeting on 10 March. The parties discussed the situation on the Belarusian border in 2019, irregular migration and prospects of international technical assistance projects.

Anatoly Lappo focused the attention on the situation with the illegal border crossing by migrants with children. “In such cases we create favorable conditions for mothers with children. They are accommodated in medical points of military units, where they receive necessary medical and psychological care. We have been actively cooperating with international organizations that provide humanitarian assistance to such families whenever possible,” Anatoly Lappo said.

Rashed Mustafa Sarwar said UNICEF is interested in developing cooperation with the State Border Committee. “Children should see the border as open and friendly. In the near future we will sign a memorandum on cooperation and start working on topics that meet the interests of our organizations,” he said.

The State Border Committee, in turn, is ready to support the initiative of UNICEF to promote a unique image project, Borders Open to Children. According to the chairman, border guards are interested in developing infrastructure for children at checkpoints, border posts and centers for foreign nationals.