Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

The Belarusian national air carrier Belavia has extended the suspension of air travel to Tallinn until 31 December 2021, BelTA learned from the website of the airline.

Belavia will not fly to Larnaca till 14 December. The flights to Ashgabat will not be available until 1 January, to Riga – until 31 January 2021. Belavia will not operate flights to Budapest and Almaty till 27 March 2021.

The flights to all destinations in Russia (apart from Moscow's Domodedovo) are suspended until 24 December, as there is no permission yet from the Russian government.

Customers who purchased tickets for these travel dates will be able to apply for a refund or to reschedule their flights till 30 March 2021. Tickets can be refunded and flights can be rescheduled at company's offices and customer service centers.

The Belarusian national air carrier Belavia has extended the suspension of air travel to Riga until 31 January 2021, BelTA learned from the website of the airline.

Belavia will fly to Tallinn and Larnaca till 14 December. The flights to Ashgabat will not be available till 1 January 2021. Belavia will not operate flights to Budapest and Almaty till 27 March 2021.

The flights to all destinations in Russia (apart from Moscow's Domodedovo) are suspended until 24 December as there is no permission yet from the Russian government.

Customers who purchased tickets for these travel dates will be able to apply for a refund or to reschedule their flights till 30 March 2021. Tickets can be refunded and flights can be rescheduled at company's offices and customer service centers.

Belarus registered 1,689 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours; another 1,608 coronavirus patients were discharged from hospital, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Healthcare Ministry.

The nationwide COVID-19 tally has reached 139,908 cases. A total of 117,195 patients previously diagnosed with COVID-19 have recovered in Belarus.

As many as 1,174 COVID-19 patients suffering from a number of chronic diseases have died since the infection's outbreak in Belarus.

Belarus performed 3,306,693 tests, 27,556 – in the past 24 hours.

The 3rd international symposium “Education for Sustainable Development for All Generations” will be held at the Maxim Tank Belarusian State Pedagogical University on 2-3 December, BelTA learned from the press service of the university.

The symposium makes part of Belarus' Sustainable Development Council action plan for 2020-2021 and the roadmap of Towards the Future We Want youth campaign implemented by the Education Ministry and the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Belarus with the support of the UN agencies' offices.

The symposium will include the plenary session “Education for Sustainable Development: Vectors of Change”, the ceremony to award youth ambassadors of the Sustainable Development Goals, the roundtable “Education Component as a Driver for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals”, and also the panel discussion “Responsible Decisions and Innovations as a method to involve people in the processes of adaptation to climate change: best European practices”, the meet-up “Education for Sustainable Development: Successful Experience in Organizing ESD practices for all generations and Promotion of SDGs to local communities and regions”.

The symposium is organized by the Education for Sustainable Development Coordination Center of the Maxim Tank Belarusian State Pedagogical University.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Finland Aleksei Samosuyev met with Chairman of the non-governmental organization Finland-Belarus Society Jussi Seppala, BelTA learned from the Belarusian Embassy in Finland.

“The parties reviewed the state of the bilateral relations during the pandemic and discussed future joint activities, including in tourism and culture. They stressed the importance of preserving the direct Minsk-Helsinki flight in the current situation,” the embassy noted.

At the request of the Finnish party, Ambassador Aleksei Samosuyev commented about the ongoing political processes in Belarus.

MINSK, 30 November (BelTA) - Talks about changing the national flag of Belarus are absurd, Vasilisa Marzalyuk, two-time champion of the European Games, multiple prizewinner of the world and European championships in women's wrestling, said on the air of the STV channel, BelTA has learned.

"We should appreciate what we have. Talks about changing the flag looks absurd to me. Sovereign Belarus is associated with the red-green flag, I have competed under it all my life. Many times I carried this flag in my hands and I am proud of it. I hope that at the Olympics I will also be able to compete under this flag," the athlete said.

Speaking about the address of famous Belarusian athletes to the public, Vasilisa Marzalyuk stressed that, by signing it she wanted to express her opinion, to show her attitude to sport and the current situation. "Naturally, we want to defend our cause, profession and the Olympic movement in our country. I receive a lot of unpleasant feedback in connection with this address, but I was prepared for much of this. But there is a lot of support, too, and I can feel it. Sport should unite should not be mixed with politics. Yet, people respond differently to our address. A lot of people support us. Many people do not want to do it openly because of the hate campaign on the internet,” she said.

The two-time European Games champion said by signing this address Belarusian athletes want to defend the interests of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus too. “We hope that we will succeed in this and there will be fewer problems. The NOC has received several letters from the Sports Solidarity Fund, and the committee is looking into every case. It is possible that there were cases when people were treated unfairly. The NOC assesses the situations and responds to the International Olympic Committee. All this is very dangerous because in the worst case scenario, the NOC may be be stripped of the Olympic accreditation. This means that athletes will not be allowed to represent our country at the Olympics. They will be able to take part in the Games only under the neutral flag of the International Olympic Committee,” Vasilisa Marzalyuk explained.

MINSK, 27 November (BelTA) - Belarus' Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Subbotin and Head of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia (Rosselkhoznadzor) Sergey Dankvert have agreed to lift temporary restrictions on the supplies of certain dairy products from Belarusian companies to Russia, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian government.

Restrictions are lifted from the production branches of Savushkin Product in Bereza and Ivanovo, Slutsk Creamery and Bellakt starting from 27 November.

From 30 November exports to Russia are allowed for Polotsk Dairy (whole-milk products, dried dairy products, butter, cottage cheese and curd), Pruzhany Dairy (dried dairy products), Luninets Dairy (butter and dried dairy products), First Minsk Poultry Factory (food egg products, poultry meat and by-products), Agrokombinat Kolos (poultry meat and by-products, ready meat products and canned poultry products), Belovezhskiye Delikatesy (ready meat products and semi-finished pork products).

MINSK, 26 November (BelTA) – Belarusian healthcare facilities are better supplied with protective equipment than at the start of the pandemic, Chairman of the National Committee of the Belarusian Trade Union of Healthcare Workers Vyacheslav Shilo said at the first plenum of the committee, BelTA has learned.

“It is important to ensure safe working conditions, provide healthcare workers with personal and collective protective equipment, and ensure compliance with safety requirements at workplaces,” Vyacheslav Shilo noted.

The National Committee instructed to monitor whether drivers employed in the healthcare sector are provided with PPE and disinfectants. The organization has stepped up control over the correct use of PPE and created a system to monitor the weekly demand for PPE of every healthcare facility.

“At present, our facilities are supplied with personal and collective protective equipment much better than at the beginning of the pandemic,” Vyacheslav Shilo pointed out.

He also stressed that the main task of trade unions is to monitor daily whether healthcare facilities have enough PPE of acceptable quality and to inform the superior body about issues and measures taken to address them.

MINSK, 25 November (BelTA) – Belarusian journalists are technically and ethically ready to challenge the inflow of fake news, Chairman of the Belarusian Union of Journalists Andrei Krivosheyev said as he took part in the 14th congress of the union, BelTA has learned.

“Belarus and the mass media community did not start this era of post-truth and fake news. We were forced to work in this era. Since the beginning of this very difficult year we had to operate in such an intensive mode. However, to the credit of Belarusian journalists, most of them adhere to the ethical standards of the profession. All adhere to the new Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists adopted by the International Federation of Journalists at the end of last year. In fact, this is a small ethical constitution for journalists, for more than 180 journalistic associations around the world,” Andrei Krivosheyev said.

According to him, data verification and fact checking are becoming essential for a modern journalist. “In fact, disclosing fake news is turning into a separate genre of journalism, which, by the way, is very popular among our readers, subscribers, viewers, followers, radio listeners. Therefore, in my opinion, our colleagues, Belarusian journalists, are technically, ethically, and morally prepared to counter this avalanche of fake news. As for the Belarusian Union of Journalists, we expect to significantly boost the ethics commission at the congress today. This commission will help, including at the national level, large regional mass media holdings to maintain high ethical standards, to keep the ethical bar of Belarusian journalism,” Andrei Krivosheyev said.

In addition, the congress of the Belarusian Union of Journalists will also discuss digitalization of regional media.

MINSK, 24 November (BelTA) – As of 24 November, 105,835 patients previously diagnosed with COVID-19 recovered in Belarus, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Healthcare Ministry.

The nationwide COVID-19 tally has reached 126,953 cases. Belarus has performed 3,101,820 tests.

As many as 1,112 COVID-19 patients suffering from a number of chronic diseases have died since the infection's outbreak in Belarus.