Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

The Belarus Nature Week will be held on 22-29 May, BelTA learned from the press service of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB).

The week will celebrate the International Day of Biological Diversity (22 May). A number of events will be held by the Scientific and Practical Center for Bioresources, the Kuprevich Institute of Experimental Botany, the Central Botanical Garden, and the Institute of Forest. Most of the events will be held online.

The Central Botanical Garden will hold a consultation on cultivating lilacs and rhododendrons and at the end of the week it will post videos with recommendations on its website.

The Kuprevich Institute of Experimental Botany will hold an international seminar on modern technology in protecting environmentally sensitive areas. Taking part in the seminar will be scientific institutions, natural reserves and national parks from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The scientists of the Kuprevich Institute of Experimental Botany will deliver a lecture on dangerous plants of Belarus for school students.

The Scientific and Practical Center for Bioresources will hold the first online seminar for experts and beneficiaries of the project on integrated management and measures to mitigate the impact of invasive species in the protected areas of the trans-boundary region. This project is designed to strengthen cooperation between Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus in addressing the common problem, i.e. the spread of invasive species and their negative impact on public health and environmentally sensitive areas.

The UN General Assembly proclaimed 22 May the International Day of Biological Diversity in 1995 to raise awareness about preservation of ecosystems and extinction of plant and animal species.

The House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus ratified the Belarusian-Russian intergovernmental agreement on the mutual exchange of geospatial data between the Armed Forces of the two countries on 21 May. The document in the Oval Hall was presented by Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, BelTA has learned.

According to the minister, the agreement is designed to improve the effectiveness of topogeodesic and navigation support of the regional grouping of forces of Belarus and Russia in carrying out joint activities of operational training.

“The ratification will help the topographic services to increase the efficiency of providing the armed forces with top-geodetic information means for the area of responsibility of the regional grouping of forces, to unify technologies and regulatory and technical documentation, to reduce costs and increase the capacity of the two countries in building up geospatial data,” said Viktor Khrenin.

The parties will cooperate in various formats, including in the development of geospatial databanks and training specialists required to work with it.

The agreement was signed in Moscow on 25 October 2019.

The international scientific online conference “Sakharov Readings 2020: Environmental Problems of the 21st Century" will kick off at Belarusian State University (BSU) on 21 May, BelTA learned from the BSU press service.

The two-day conference will be held on YouTube. Key speakers will be BSU Rector Andrei Korol, Belarus Deputy Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister Aleksandr Korbut, Director of the Institute of Nature Management of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) Sergei Lysenko, and Head of the Sakharov International State Environmental Institute of the BSU Sergei Maskevich.

The forum will bring together more than 230 scientists, ecologists, and experts from 13 countries: Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Turkey, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Italy, and Lithuania. Representatives of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will also take part in the conference.

The conference will feature sections in eight areas, including social and economic problems of sustainable development, environmental education, research and rehabilitation of ecosystems, environmental monitoring and means of biomedical diagnostics, information systems and technologies. The program of the event will include a roundtable on bioethics and a session of the public council of the Sakharov Institute as a base organization on environmental education of the CIS member states. The participants will discuss the development of environmental education and the organization of the 10th International Environmental Olympiad of Universities of the CIS Countries in December 2020.

The conference has been organized by the International Sakharov Environmental Institute of the BSU, the Belarusian Education Ministry, the Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry, the Chernobyl Catastrophe Remediation Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry, and the public council of the base organization on environmental education of the CIS member states.

The Belarusian Red Cross and EPAM Company launched a joint charity campaign #TogetherAsOne in late April and have so far raised more than Br400,000 to compat COVID-19, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Red Cross Society.

“A total of Br429.902 have been raised over less than two and a half weeks. It is a record-high amount of donations as part of one campaign in the history of the Belarusian Red Cross,” the society said.

The campaign aimed to raise money to purchase medical equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical and social workers, employees and volunteers of the Belarusian Red Cross. The first donation to the total tune of Br245,060 was made by EPAM, offering its employees to support the Belarusian Red Cross program to combat COVID-19. They transferred over Br92,400 more, and the IT company doubled this amount.

A part of the funds has already been spent to purchase an X-ray equipment for the Gomel Infectious Diseases Hospital, 20 contactless thermometers for 16 orphanages of Gomel Oblast and Grodno Oblast (Mozyr, Rogachev, Novogrudok, and others), as well as more than 35,000 high-protection respirators FFP2 and almost 6,300 medical protective overalls. They will also be distributed among regions. Some of them have already been sent to 26 healthcare facilities and 29 orphanages in Brest Oblast, Vitebsk Oblast, Gomel Oblast and Minsk Oblast. For example, Minsk city emergency medical station has received 6,000 respirators.

The Belarusian Red Cross plans to purchase reusable protective suits, the stability of which is 100 times higher than the disposable ones. PPE will be sent to healthcare facilities and orphanages.

The National Research Center for Transfusiology and Medical Biotechnology has plans to carry out 35-40 convalescent plasma transfusions this week to treat coronavirus patients, head of the center Fyodor Karpenko told the STV channel on 17 May.

“I believe every week the number of donors is increasing nearly 1.5 times. In the coming week our center alone will conduct about 35-40 transfusions. It is very good that regional transfusiology centers got involved. Blood plasma is collected also by Minsk City Hospital No. 6 and across all the regions,” Fyodor Karpenko said. In his words, blood plasma is used by healthcare facilities in about 100 towns across Belarus.

The first convalescent plasma transfusion was done in Belarus on 11 April. Over this period some donors have donated their blood plasma three times. The donation should be preceded by a thorough medical examination that is done pretty fast in Belarus. The very transfusion lasts from 30 to 50 minutes. As of today, more than 120 people in Belarus donated plasma. Over 200 people registered to become donors, however, not all of them met the donation requirements because of having counter-indications or having no antibodies.

“The interval between donations is 14 days. Antibodies were developed in 85% of those who came to our center. The cases we are observing are proceeding in line with a classical scenario for such infections, when antibodies start developing on the fifth-tenth day after contracting the infection. The peak is observed on the second-third month after catching the virus,” Fyodor Karpenko said.

He noted that antibodies are most commonly found in young patients and those who had moderate or severe forms of the disease. Belarusian doctors are impressed by the results of the convalescent plasma therapy. “It is encouraging to see many positive results. This inspires and encourages us to keep working, discussing, exploring and promoting this therapy,” the doctor said.

Belarus is nearing a plateau on the novel coronavirus, Deputy Healthcare Minister Yelena Bogdan said in an interview to the STV channel, BelTA has learned.

“You know that we have recently approached a so-called plateau when the coronavirus is diagnosed in some 8.7-9.7% of the conducted tests. If we take our diagram, we can see that we have reached this plateau,” Yelena Bogdan said.

“As many as 26,772 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the country as of 14 May. A total of 8,168 of them recovered and were discharged from hospitals,” the deputy minister said.

Speaking about the medications used to treat the coronavirus, Yelena Bogdan said that to date there is no panacea for COVID-19. “All the studies are conducted on absolutely different drugs, which are used to treat absolutely different diseases. These are the drugs that we use to treat malaria, to treat some diseases associated with autoimmune disorders. These are also the drugs to treat HIV and rheumatoid arthritis,” she explained.

Belarus has joined the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments, BelTA learned from the National Legal Internet Portal.

The press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the secretary general of the International Maritime Organization informed Belarus about depositing the document on Belarus' ascension to the convention on 23 March 2020. The convention was adopted in London on 13 February 2004 and amended on 1 April 2018. For Belarus, the convention will come into effect on 23 June 2020.

The convention lays down norms and rules on the management of ballast waters and sediments to prevent the spread of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens from one region to another. In particular, it requires all member states to draw up and implement a ballast water management plan.

As of 12 May, 6,974 patients previously diagnosed with COVID-19 recovered and were discharged from hospitals in Belarus, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Healthcare Ministry.

The nationwide tally of the coronavirus cases reached 24,873 people.

Thirty-eight laboratories are involved in testing in Belarus. So far, 284,445 tests have been performed. All regions of Belarus also perform rapid tests based on medical necessity to find people who have had the coronavirus.

A total of 142 coronavirus patients suffering from a number of chronic diseases have died.

Rapid diagnostic tests based on antibody detection will be used first of all to diagnose coronavirus in patients showing disease symptoms. Such tests are expected to facilitate the choice of the most optimal treatment method, Head of Minsk City Hospital No. 1, Chairman of the Belarusian Association of Doctors Dmitry Shevtsov told the Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA has learned.

A reminder, Belarus received 100,000 rapid tests for detecting COVID-19 antibodies from China. “First of all, rapid tests will be used if there are medical indications, when doctors should determine very fast whether a patient has a coronavirus infection alongside pneumonia, for example. This will help choose the treatment tactics from the very first hours,” Dmitry Shevtsov said.

He noted that these tests are very accurate. “Inaccuracies are very rare. Within 15 minutes we will be able to find out whether a person has a coronavirus infection. And if he/she does, we will be able to determine the stage of the disease,” the doctor said.

These rapid tests can be used by patients at home.

Dmitry Shevtsov did not specify when such tests will be available at pharmacies.

«Thank you» message in Belarusian projected on Berlin's Brandenburg Gate for Victory Day

Berlin's Brandenburg Gate was illuminated on Friday evening, 8 May, with the words «Thank you» in several languages as a sign of gratitude for the liberation from Nazism, BelTA has learned.

The gratitude was shown in Russian and several other languages, including the Belarusian «Dziakui».

On his Instagram account, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei thanked German friends for appreciating the contribution of Belarusians to peace in Europe and the world in general.