Belarus will continue to hold its annual military parade this week, despite experiencing one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Europe.
The annual military parade marks the country's defeat of Nazi Germany, and during a recent press conference, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko stated that they couldn't cancel the parade because doing so would create fear of the virus among the country's population.
"I must say that we cannot cancel the parade. We simply cannot. I thought about it for a long time. Of course, this is an emotional, profoundly ideological thing," Lukashenko said, according to."We should remember that some of those people [who fought in the Second World War] might have died of viruses or other diseases, but didn't always feel that, and they died for us, no matter how pompous this might sound. And just think what people would say.
A woman wearing a face mask walks past a sign depicting a virus in Minsk, Belarus, on April 11, 2020, during the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus.Lukashenko's decision to not cancel the parade comes as the country continues to see an increase in coronavirus cases. According to a tracker provided by Johns Hopkins University, as of Tuesday, Belarus had 7,000 confirmed cases of the virus and at least 103 deaths.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic that has impacted countries across the world, Belarus has remained one of the only European nations to not impose a lockdown, to fight the spread of the virus. In Belarus, restaurants, coffee shops and movie theatres have remained open. In late April, churches across the country were filled with residents as they celebrated Orthodox Easter. Professional soccer has also continued, with no postponement or cancellation of any matches., Lukashenko recently told reporters after playing in an amateur ice hockey game, that"there are no viruses here.
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