The president of Belarus announced that the Covid-19 test had been done, after calling the pandemic fears “psychosis” and prescribing remedies, adding vodka and saunas.
Speaking before the country’s elections in two weeks, Alexander Lukashenko, 65, told army leaders that he had hit the coronavirus, which killed more than 500 people in Belarus, but said he had recovered from Array without symptoms of symptoms.
Public frustration with his handling of the pandemic, coupled with the lack of strict lockout measures, has fueled the largest protests in years opposed to his reign before the presidential election on August 9.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, photographed today in Minsk, revealed that he had tested positive for Covid-19, but was ‘asymptomatic’
He imprisoned two of his election rivals in a growing crackdown on dissent.
Today you meet a guy who controlled the coronavirus on his feet. That’s what the doctors concluded yesterday. Asymptomatic, lukashenko says.
“Like I said, 97% of our population has this infection asymptomatically,” he added. He provided a source for that figure.
Belarus, with a figure of 9.5 million, recorded 67,366 coronavirus infections with 543 deaths.
Lukashenko did not say when or how he may have contracted the virus. He met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at an army parade in Moscow last month. Putin well, said the tasS news firm quoting Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The citizens of Minsk protested against the lack of strict blocking measures after Belarus kept its borders open and allowed football parties to take a stand in front of the crowds in the worst months of the pandemic.
Lukashenko, a former chief of the Soviet collective farm, said in April that no one would die of coronavirus in Belarus and that any death would be the result of underlying conditions, such as central disease or diabetes.
Unlike European countries, Belarus has kept its borders open and has even allowed national league football matches to be played against spectators.
His has increased discontent with the president, whose ironic reign since 1994 has called him “Europe’s last dictator” across Washington.
President Lukashenko, photographed in July, had advised in the past that the public take saunas, drink vodka and play ice hockey as part of Covid-19.
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Edited through Associated Newspapers Ltd
Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and Metro Media Group