Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has resisted the coronavirus-related blockades imposed in peak countries and who drinking vodka can treat the virus on Tuesday, said Tuesday that he had had and recovered from COVID-19.
“Today you meet a guy who controlled the coronavirus on his feet. That’s what the doctors concluded yesterday. Asymptomatic,” Lukashenko said, stating without mentioning a source that “97% of our population brings this infection asymptomatically,” according to Reuters.
Lukashenko, whose manipulation of the virus sparked mass protests before the 9th of August presidential election in the country, has said in the past that fears about the virus were a “psychosis.”
When asked in March if the pandemic would save him from playing ice hockey, he said, “To avoid me? But why? It’s possible, but why? I don’t get it. There’s no virus here. Have you noticed any of them? Fly? I don’t see them.”
In April, Lukashenko defended his resolve to keep national borders open and allow football matches to continue with a live audience, saying that no Belarusian would die from the virus. Since then, 543 other people have died and another 67,366 people have tested positive for the virus.
Lukashenko, who has been in force since 1994, also said Tuesday that police deployed against the protesters “under no circumstances…” creates provocations,” but he told the chief of police insurrection that “he doesn’t allow [the protesters] to insult the boys either.
Human rights teams say at least 1,100 other people have been arrested since the riots began, adding two of Lukashenko’s rival candidates. Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, wife of candidate Siarhei Tsikhanouski, has campaigned for her husband since his arrest and has a leading figure in the protests.
“The government hopes that the demonstration of strength and threats,” such as supervised training through Lukashenko, will “prevent others from taking to the streets,” political analyst Alexander Klaskovsky told Reuters.
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