Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

A European cinema festival will take place in Minsk on 20-31 January, BelTA learned from the visual and performing arts center ART Corporation.

The audience will be able to see feature films and documentaries, a total of over 40 entries from Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Italy, Scandinavia, the Baltic countries, Southeast and Eastern Europe. “These films took part in prestigious international film festivals. They will help build a better understanding of contemporary European culture, and will be a real treat for appreciators of auteur cinema. At a time when the whole world is under lockdown, cinema will try to overcome barriers and unite the world. The messages delivered by these films will help get a better grasp of the reality we are living in,” ART Corporation said.

The films will be screened in several cinemas, including Tsentralny, Pioneer, Falcon Club Boutique Cinema and Silver Screen in the Galileo mall. These films were presented at film festivals around the world throughout the past year. The program features family films and documentaries from leading European cinema schools. The films will be presented by film experts Irina Demyanova, Igor Sukmanov and Maria Kostyukovich, as well as children's writers Yevgenia Pasternak and Andrei Zhvalevsky. Some screenings will be followed by a discussion with the directors.

The festival will kick off with Rival directed by Marcus Lenz (Germany). According to the organizers, the film is a mix of drama and thriller and revolves around an unpredictable and unexpected love triangle. An elderly German man and a 9-year-old Ukrainian boy compete for a woman's love and maternal affection. Excellent acting will keep you on your toes until the very end.

The fiction program includes social dramas, love adventures, fantasies and stories based on real events. The selection of documentary films includes documentary comedies and documentary animation, as well as the best films of students of film schools in Germany, Italy, Croatia and Slovakia.

Declaring 2021 as the Year of People's Unity is of special relevance and paramount importance for Belarus, Professor Valery Bainev, Doctor of Economics at Belarusian State University, said in an interview to the SB. Belarus Segodnya newspaper, BelTA has learned.

“The events of August-December 2020 have manifested a serious split in society. The Year of People's Unity will undoubtedly play a very important role. It is of special relevance and paramount importance for the country. The only question is to what extent its ideas will be implemented and how successful they will be. In my opinion, we need to approach this issue very carefully,” said the professor.

In his words, the divisions in society are largely due to the fact that Belarus lies between the powerful centers of power: the West and the East. “They fiercely oppose each other, and this reflects on our country: these forces, like a magnet, attract and repel people in our country. Therefore, it seems to me that while an economic multi-pronged vector is quite acceptable, the political one must now become a thing of the past,” Valery Bainev emphasized. “I think that the formula should be as follows: the course should be towards Russia and China, while relations with the West should be strictly business, trade and economy. The West has, in fact, tried to destroy us politically. I believe that the Year of People's Unity is a good occasion to finally resolve this fundamental dilemma. It is time for us to make up our minds, especially since the recent events have shown us who our friends are and who are not,” he added.

Acting Chairman of the Republican Party of Labor and Justice Aleksandr Stepanov also believes that the Year of People's Unity should unite people, reconcile different worldviews, and crystallize a common concept of Homeland and Fatherland. “These concepts are expressed in the national idea. All Belarusians must comply with the interests of our country. Every person's patriotism, loyalty to the country and its interests will enable Belarus to achieve new successes, to preserve its integrity and to strengthen its authority in the international arena. I believe that the Year of People's Unity will play a very important role in uniting people for the sake of the Fatherland and Homeland,” he concluded.

Background radiation levels in the area of the Belarusian nuclear power plant remain stable, BelTA learned from Mikhail Kovalenko, Head of the Radiation Monitoring Service of the National Center for Hydrometeorology, Radioactive Contamination Control, and Environmental Monitoring of the Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry, at a press conference on 11 January.

The official said: “There are ten automatic measuring stations around the Belarusian nuclear power plant. We receive data from them every ten minutes. The data includes gamma radiation levels and information about radionuclide content in the air. The situation in this area remained stable through 2020.”

Apart from that, three sites to collect aerosol samples of the surface layer of the atmosphere at nearby weather stations (Naroch, Oshmyany, and Lyntupy) have been operating in the area of the Belarusian nuclear power plant since 2016 in addition to three sites for monitoring radiation in surface waters and four sites for monitoring radiation in soil. They have already been added to the list of sites of the national monitoring system. Observation regulations have been worked out. “We have not recorded any deviations from previous measurements,” the official noted.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast using the Russian design AES-2006 featuring two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW. The pilot commercial operation of the first unit of the nuclear power plant began in December 2020.

As of 10 January Belarus registered 1,833 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours; 2,364 coronavirus patients were discharged from hospitals, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Healthcare Ministry.

The nationwide COVID-19 tally has reached 212,201 cases. A total of 194,984 patients previously diagnosed with COVID-19 have recovered in Belarus.

As many as 1,517 COVID-19 patients have died since the infection's outbreak in Belarus.

Belarus has performed 4,130,911 tests, 12,917 tests in the past 24 hours.

The main library of Belarusian State University (BSU) has been included in the consortium of digital library networks of classical universities.

This gives the BSU teachers, researchers and students the right to use academic and scientific literature of 32 universities of the CIS member states for free, BelTA learned from the BSU press service.

The universities have joined efforts to expand book holdings and improve cost efficiency by providing free access to collections of digital materials within the framework of the consortium. “At present, the list boasts more than 6,000 academic editions, including books on humanities and natural sciences of Russia's Siberian Federal University, Kazan Federal University, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod, and Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University,” the press service said.

The creator and curator of the consortium is the digital library system Lan that compiles collections in eight fields: agriculture, technology, education, healthcare, physical education and sport, economy and law, culture and arts. The BSU book holdings is included in the section “classical universities”. The collection of the consortium includes about 30,000 editions in various academic disciplines and subjects.

Belarus registered 1,957 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours; another 2,644 coronavirus patients were discharged from hospital, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Healthcare Ministry.

The nationwide COVID-19 tally has reached 192,361 cases. A total of 171,901 patients previously diagnosed with COVID-19 have recovered in Belarus.

As many as 1,414 COVID-19 patients suffering from a number of chronic diseases have died since the infection's outbreak in Belarus.

Belarus performed 3,962,318 tests, 25,454 – in the past 24 hours.

The 6th Belarusian People's Congress dedicated website vsebel.by is now online. The website offers various information materials concerning preparations for and the actual congress, BelTA has learned.

The website offers information from various sources. Internet users are invited to browse analytical articles and news articles of printed mass media, photo and video stories of TV channels, digital mass media, and the news agency BelTA.

The website is updated every day in real time. The materials are distributed into news, photos, videos, and history. The section dedicated to the history of the forum offers detailed description of the previous congresses, which were held in 1996-2016, and their results.

An interactive component is part of the website, too: in the Feedback section users can see complete information about working hours and addresses of community liaison offices in every oblast and can submit their proposals about the matters they are interested in. To do it, they have to choose their region and fill in the submission form.

COVID-19 cases have plateaued in Belarus and might decline after the holidays, Aleksandr Tarasenko, Deputy Healthcare Minister – Chief Sanitary Inspector of the Republic of Belarus, said in an interview with the ONT TV channel, BelTA reports.

“Of course, it's too early to talk about this, but I think that the cases have hit a plateau, and depending on how the holidays - New Year and Christmas - will go, we might be able to see a gradual decline in caseloads throughout the country,” Aleksandr Tarasenko said.

The Healthcare Ministry's anti-coronavirus recommendations remain the same – social distancing, limiting face-to-face contact, avoiding crowds, wearing masks. According to the chief sanitary inspector, a certain part of the population rejects these rules and believes that wearing masks is ineffective, although doctors think the opposite. “Many people don't experience any symptoms after becoming infected, but they can still spread the virus to other people. Therefore, wearing a mask is a must,” he explained.

Commenting on the new mutated virus, Aleksandr Tarasenko noted that the mutation is not so significant and there is no evidence suggesting that it can affect the severity of the disease.

He believes that Belarus has chosen the right way to handle the spread of the coronavirus. “Each country has its own strategy. Someone opts for the so-called lockdown and imposes strict quarantine measures. Belarus' current coronavirus containment strategy is correct and effective,” he said.

Speaking about the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccination, Aleksandr Tarasenko noted that one has to wait for a year to see whether the vaccination-induced immunity will be long lasting.

According to the deputy minister, vaccination in Belarus will begin no later than the first quarter of 2021. “Negotiations are in full swing with the Russian Federation and other countries. However, it is not until the first quarter that we get things going. Of course, we expect that it will happen earlier - the beginning of January. I think, the vaccination will definitely begin in the first quarter,” he noted. The number of people who will get coronavirus shots will be as many or maybe more than those who get flu vaccines.

A session of the interstate network of institutes of public health and informatization of healthcare of the CIS member states was held via videoconferencing, BelTA learned from the department of cooperation in humanitarian affairs, political and social issues of the CIS Executive Committee.

The participants of the session assessed the performance of the network of institutes in 2020 and considered proposals from the CIS member states relating to the draft action plan for 2021. Plans are in place to focus on prevention and combating of non- communicable diseases, HIV, tuberculosis, and the novel coronavirus. The session intends to take stock of the execution of the action plan to implement the strategy on health of the population of the CIS member states for 2020-2021.

In addition, plans are in place to translate the 11th version of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems into the Russian language.

The participants of the session also discussed the status of implementation of decisions and instructions of the CIS council for cooperation in healthcare. The next session will take place February 2021.

Creating a proprietary coronavirus vaccine is part of the national security.

Belarusian Healthcare Minister Dmitry Pinevich made the statement after the government conference held by Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko on 22 December to discuss the development of antiviral vaccines and the localization of production of foreign vaccines in Belarus, BelTA has learned.

Dmitry Pinevich is convinced that in modern conditions vaccination and the healthcare system as a whole have become part of the economy and politics. “Creating a vaccine of our own is an element of the national security,” the healthcare minister stressed. “Creating a vaccine manufacturing facility (we don't have one) is a strategic direction.”

Dmitry Pinevich noted that for a long time the Belarusian pharmaceutical industry has been successfully taking care of transfer of technologies for the sake of setting up large-scale production of medications. It creates a good foundation for starting the production of vaccines using a similar scheme. The emergence of such a new enterprise for the country will lead to the development of the potential of research teams, manufacturing facilities, equipment, and so on right up to all the components the creation of a proprietary vaccine involves.