Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

Clinical trials of Russia's coronavirus vaccine are to start in Belarus in September, BelTA learned from the press service of the Healthcare Ministry.

Specialists from Belarus and Russia are actively collaborating on this matter. The Belarusian side has already determined the healthcare facilities where the trials will be done. Now some technical issues are being negotiated taking into account national and international requirements.

The categories and the number of patients are being determined. “According to preliminary information provided by the Russian side, there are plans to begin clinical trials in September this year,” the press service noted.

In addition, at the suggestion of the Russian side, Belarusian specialists are considering a possibility to make the vaccine with varying degrees of localization at Belarus' pharmaceutical companies.

The Minsk Half Marathon has been postponed to September 2021, BelTA learned from the official website of the Belarusian Athletics Federation.

“Health and safety of our participants is a fundamental task for the organizers. For this reason, as well as based on the recommendations of the Minsk City Hall and the Sport and Tourism Ministry, a difficult decision was made to postpone the Minsk Half Marathon to 12 September 2021,” the organizers said.

Registration for the event will continue, and all the payments already made will be valid for next year. The 2020 Minsk Half Marathon was scheduled for 13 September.

The Belarusian air carrier Belavia has extended suspension of air travel to Riga, Latvia till 6 September, BelTA learned from the website of the airline.

Moreover, Belavia will not fly to Russia till 14 September (flights to Voronezh, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod have been suspended till 24 October) as Russia has not allowed air travel from Belarus yet.

The airline has also extended suspension of air travel to Larnaca till 31 August, to Ashgabat till 1 September, and to all destinations in Georgia till 30 September.

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

The development of a uniform distance learning platform will be completed in Belarus by the end of 2020, Education Minister Igor Karpenko told the Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA informs.

“We are starting the academic year in the usual format. At the same time, we are actively getting ready for all kinds of developments. We were heavily criticized for the lack of a uniform distance learning platform. This is not a panacea; it will not replace the classroom in secondary and vocational school. Nevertheless, we are working on it. By the end of this year, a uniform distance learning platform will be developed. By the way, the option is of interest not only for students, but also for young teachers,” Igor Karpenko said.

At first, the platform will be launched in a test mode. It is supposed to become fully operational on 1 September 2021.

Igor Karpenko informed that the Education Ministry jointly with the Healthcare Ministry developed guidelines for managing the educational process amidst the coronavirus pandemic. “The Education Ministry and the Healthcare Ministry will respond to any difficulties caused the rise of seasonal viral infections on a case-by-case basis. I would like to emphasize that we will recommend that teachers and all people working with children (and children themselves) get vaccinated,” added Igor Karpenko.

The Belarusian air carrier Belavia has extended suspension of air travel to Russia till 14 September, BelTA learned from the website of the airline.

Belavia will not fly to Russia till 14 September (flights to Voronezh, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod have been suspended till 24 October) as Russia has not allowed air travel from Belarus yet.

The airline noted that it has also extended suspension of air travel to Riga and Larnaca till 31 August, to Ashgabat till 1 September, and to all destinations in Georgia till 30 September.

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

A Perseid meteor shower can be observed throughout Belarus in cloudless weather in August.

The Perseids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Swift–Tuttle. The Perseids are a meteor shower that appears to hail from the constellation Perseus in August every year.

Photos by Andrei Pakumeiko

The national air carrier Belavia has extended suspension of flights to Georgia, BelTA learned from the website of the airline.

All flights to Georgia have been suspended till 30 September.

The airline has also extended suspension of air travel to Riga and Larnaca till 31 August. Belavia will not fly to all destinations in Russia till 31 August (to Voronezh, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod – till 24 August) and to Ashgabat – till 1 September.

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

A unified register of licenses has been launched in Belarus, BelTA learned from the official website of the Belarusian Communications and Informatization Ministry.

The unified register of licenses is an information system that contains data about issued licenses, updates and amendments to them, news about suspension, renewal, expiry, and revocation of licenses as well as other data that should be provided under the legislation. The register already contains over 50,600 licenses.

The register was created in line with Decree No.326 of 2 September 2019 on improving licensing. It is meant to do away with excessive regulations, improve the licensing procedures, and ease the terms and conditions for license applicants and holders. The establishment and operation of the unified register of licenses was approved by the Council of Ministers' resolution.

The register is available at license.gov.by and the central electronic services portal. The unified register of licenses provides information for free.

Nearly 1,000 forest fires have happened in Belarus since the beginning of the year, BelTA learned from Aleksei Boiko, a consultant with the Forest Management Office of the Belarusian Forestry Ministry.

As of 17 August there had been 986 forest fires with their total area as large as 6.575 million hectares. Most of the fires happened in Brest Oblast (347 fires on an area of 2.3 million hectares) and Gomel Oblast (263 fires on an area of 3.5 million hectares).

This year's situation with forest fires in Belarus has been determined by unusual weather in spring. Sunny weather, gusty winds, the willingness of Belarusians to set old dry grass on fire as a spring cleanup measure, failures to observe fire safety requirements resulted in forestry enterprises having to deal with forest fires as early as mid-March. The first fire in a forest run by the Forestry Ministry was registered on 15 March. It is worth noting that spring fires, fires in April to be exact, accounted for 90% of the entire area of forest fires.

The situation has been stabilized since then. To prevent forest fires, preserve Belarusian forests, and take care of people's safety when they visit forests, municipal authorities promptly introduce restrictions and prohibitions on visiting forests after receiving fire hazard warnings from the national weather service.

This year Forestry Ministry enterprises have built a total of 74,000km of dozer lines, 49.5km of new firebreaks, and have repaired over 1,500km of fire trails. Over 4,000 inspections have been arranged, with 565 people now facing administrative charges.

Over 660 lookout towers are used to detect forest fires early. Of them 623 towers are equipped with video surveillance systems. The introduction of an automated remote system for detecting forest fires early continues.

In January-June 2020, the real disposable money income of Belarusians came at 105.4% as against the same period of 2019, BelTA learned from representatives of the National Statistics Committee of Belarus.

Salaries accounted for 64.38% of the total money income, revenues from doing business and other gainful activities – 7.3%, transfers to the population (pensions, welfare benefits, scholarships, and other kinds) – 23.5%, property income and other kinds of revenue – 4.9%.

The real disposable money income of individuals is calculated as monetary income minus taxes, duties, and fees adjusted bearing in mind the index of consumer prices for goods and services.