Minister: No cause for panic over coronavirus
Iryna Turčyna, Naviny.by
6 March 2020, 00:36
There is no cause for panic over Belarus’ first case of the novel coronavirus, Health Minister Uladzimir Karanik told reporters in Minsk on Friday.
“All of us need to calm down,” he said. “If there are some problems concerning the spread of coronavirus from abroad, we are more than ready today, even more than a week ago.”
An Iranian student of Belarusian National Technical University on Thursday tested positive for coronavirus, now formally known as Covid-19, and was placed in the Minsk Infectious Disease Hospital. He arrived in Belarus on a flight from Baku, Azerbaijan, on February 22.
The minister said that the young man required no treatment. “The patient has no symptoms,” he said.
Ihar Karpaŭ, head of the infectious disease department at Belarusian State Medical University, described the condition of the patient as satisfactory. “We examined him in the afternoon,” he said. “The patient has no fever, no signs of intoxication.”
Mr. Karanik said that some 70,000 face masks had been sold by drugstores in Minsk on Friday. “When they say that there are no masks [at drugstores], one needs to understand that there are state-owned and private drugstores. Many private drugstores simply do not sell them because it is unprofitable to do so.”
The minister said that up to 1.5 million medical masks had been stockpiled in Belarus ahead of the coronavirus outbreak.
Speaking at the news conference, World Health Organization (WHO) representative Batyr Berdyklychev stressed that healthy people did not need to wear face masks. It is health workers who have close contact with patients who need such protective gear, he said.
The WHO representative said that Covid-19 cases had been reported in 52 countries as of Friday morning. The share of severe cases is five percent and the mortality rate varies from two to four percent, he said.
6 March 2020, 00:36
Photo: BelaPAN
“All of us need to calm down,” he said. “If there are some problems concerning the spread of coronavirus from abroad, we are more than ready today, even more than a week ago.”
An Iranian student of Belarusian National Technical University on Thursday tested positive for coronavirus, now formally known as Covid-19, and was placed in the Minsk Infectious Disease Hospital. He arrived in Belarus on a flight from Baku, Azerbaijan, on February 22.
The minister said that the young man required no treatment. “The patient has no symptoms,” he said.
Ihar Karpaŭ, head of the infectious disease department at Belarusian State Medical University, described the condition of the patient as satisfactory. “We examined him in the afternoon,” he said. “The patient has no fever, no signs of intoxication.”
Mr. Karanik said that some 70,000 face masks had been sold by drugstores in Minsk on Friday. “When they say that there are no masks [at drugstores], one needs to understand that there are state-owned and private drugstores. Many private drugstores simply do not sell them because it is unprofitable to do so.”
The minister said that up to 1.5 million medical masks had been stockpiled in Belarus ahead of the coronavirus outbreak.
Speaking at the news conference, World Health Organization (WHO) representative Batyr Berdyklychev stressed that healthy people did not need to wear face masks. It is health workers who have close contact with patients who need such protective gear, he said.
The WHO representative said that Covid-19 cases had been reported in 52 countries as of Friday morning. The share of severe cases is five percent and the mortality rate varies from two to four percent, he said.
