Football fans have paid £21 to have their photo stuck on mannequins ‘watching’ a match in Belarus during the coronavirus epidemic.
They were placed in the stand for the Dynamo Brest v Shakhtyor Soligorsk cup tie in the only country in Europe where top flight soccer is continuing.
Fans from around the world paid the money to have their picture stuck to a mannequin or a shirt and to be pictured watching the match, played in Brest.
Several hundred real fans also attended yesterday’s game when Dynamo Brest won 2-0, with only a few wearing masks.
The faces were placed in the stand for the Dynamo Brest v Shakhtyor Soligorsk cup tie in the only country in Europe where top flight soccer is continuing
One local fan said: ‘I could never imagine we would be coming to watch a game in medical and gas masks, with virtual fans sitting next to us in the stand?’
The virtual fans were from Britain, Iran, UAE, Russia and Uzbekistan.
The club is selling virtual tickets for its next game against FC Isloch on 12 April.
Some of the proceeds will go to fight coronavirus in Belarus, said a club representative.
Belarus is heading for self-inflicted ‘catastrophe’ by not going into lockdown over coronavirus, says a virologist who accuses dictator Alexander Lukashenko of ‘genocide’ by refusing to face the Covid-19 threat.
The ex-Soviet state has declined to halt sport, while factories, kindergartens, schools, bars, nightclubs and cinemas remain open.
Fans from around the world paid around £21 each to have their picture stuck to a mannequin or a shirt and to be pictured watching the match
Every weekend millions in isolation around the world watch broadcasts from the Belarus Premier League which continues as normal, as do ice hockey matches.
Moustachioed Lukashenko has branded coronavirus a ‘psychosis’ which can be cured by drinking vodka, driving a tractor, going to a sauna or playing with baby goats.
But medic-turned-blogger Andrus Voynich is risking arrest by the country’s brutal KGB secret police with an extraordinary attack on the 65-year-old president claiming that the scale of infections has been covered-up and the country is now on course for worse death rates than Italy, Spain and France.
This comes as 150,000 Belarussians have signed a ‘cry from the soul’ petition demanding proper quarantine measures including immediate school closures.
Signatories appealed to the World Health Organisation pleading: ‘We want to live.’
Minsk-based Voynich says he is in touch with medics too scared to speak in the repressive state.
The virtual fans were from Britain, Iran, UAE, Russia and Uzbekistan. Some of the proceeds will go to fight coronavirus in Belarus, said a club representative
He claims people are dying ‘systematically’ from coronavirus but that ‘different types of pneumonia or other lung problems are indicated in their death certificates’.
He warned in an interview with human rights group Charter97.org that death certificates falsely say victims ‘die from everything except coronavirus’.
‘Almost all hospitals are crammed’ with sufferers, yet there is a chronic shortage of protective gear meaning doctors and medical staff are infected at alarming rates.
‘This is the most shameful thing that Belarus has produced for healthcare in the entire history of its sovereign existence,’ he said.
There are alarming infection hotspots in capital city Minsk and Vitebsk but public transport remains crowded, he said, urging doctors to speak out more strongly on the threat.
Pictures show drinkers in bars and nightclubs that remain open.
One local fan said: ‘I could never imagine we would be coming to watch a game in medical and gas masks, with virtual fans sitting next to us in the stand?’
‘These are people who consciously doom themselves to the disease,’ said Voynich.
‘They are not informed by the authorities about the dangers of COVID-19, this is the whole problem….
‘We are at risk of being in a situation much worse than Italy, Spain and France.’
Voynich, who trained as a virologist and microbiologist and previously worked in the Belarus health system, said the ruler intended to go ahead with a military parade on 9 May.
‘If Lukashenko does not have enough brains to cancel the parade, then Belarus will be on the verge of collapse,’ he said.
‘This is on the boundary of a crime and the active destruction of his own people,’ said Voynich.
‘I can only compare this with the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
Football fans were given hand sanitizer before making their way into the stadium to enjoy the game
‘Only there it was done manually, and here with the help of an epidemic.
‘I don’t have other comparisons for Lukashenko’s actions.’
His dire warning echoes the petition which ‘is like a cry from the soul. We urgently need to enter quarantine. We require quarantine. We want to live!’
The signatories warned in a rare display of dissent in the authoritarian state: ‘Many infected people are diagnosed with pneumonia so as not to mar statistical data and to prevent panic.
‘Doctors work to the point of exhaustion, and there is not enough equipment and ventilators.
‘All this will certainly lead to horrible consequences if we habitually keep silent.’
Lukashenko’s government ‘has absolutely no value for human life’, they said.
The WHO sent a mission to Belarus this week but Lukashenko told them: ‘There is absolutely no catastrophe here.’
He admitted: ‘Yes, an increase is evident. Thank God, it’s not snowballing.’
Wendesday’s official figures – which critics say are a massive underestimate – show 1,066 cases of coronavirus infection, with 13 deaths.
Several hundred real fans attended yesterday’s game when Dynamo Brest won 2-0, with only a few wearing masks
In a sign that Lukashenko is becoming rattled by criticism, he threatened to fire his government if it failed to boost protection supplies to doctors and nurses within on week.
In his latest bizarre statement he appeared to alter his advice to drink vodka to keep clear of Covid-19.
‘Today we are convinced that this evil virus finds those who drank yesterday and smoke today,’ he said.
‘I am ready to go myself and cure people with the virus, though right now there is no need for it.’
Belarus is heading for self-inflicted ‘catastrophe’ by not going into lockdown over coronavirus, says a virologist who accuses dictator Alexander Lukashenko (pictured) of ‘genocide’ by refusing to face the Covid-19 threat
The ex-Soviet state has declined to halt sport, while factories, kindergartens, schools, bars, nightclubs and cinemas remain open. Pictured: a bus stop in Vitebsk
The dictator – a former collective farm manager – added: ‘I am not saying we should put up with deaths.
‘We must fight for every life, particularly when it concerns the elderly.
‘If we want our children to protect us in the future and fight for our lives, we must fight for the life of every old person because this virus, unfortunately, is hitting the elderly the hardest.’
Yet he again refused a lockdown.
‘We can easily shut down a city within a day if necessary, but what will be the consequences and how many deaths will follow?’ he said.
‘We’ll have to pull out people from their apartments when their condition is critical and they need mechanical ventilation.
Moustachioed Lukashenko has branded coronavirus a ‘psychosis’ which can be cured by drinking vodka, driving a tractor, going to a sauna or playing with baby goats. Pictured: a busy bar in Minsk
‘Do you think we’ll be able to save these people?
‘Therefore, we shouldn’t do silly things. We’ve always been taught that it’s important to air rooms and be out in the fresh air.’
In Vitebsk graffiti alleged 22 coronavirus deaths had been covered up after local footwear workers returned from a trip to Italy.
Aliaksandar Maćviejeŭ – now living in France – has launched legal action against Lukashenko over the death of his 68 year old mother Lidzija Maćviejeva in Polotsk, Vitebsk region, due to his negligence.
‘The scary thing is that people don’t receive any information, names of the people who died don’t get published officially, everything gets hidden,’ he said.
‘People must know what’s happening in the country.
‘There must be a quarantine in order to protect medical professionals.’
In Vitebsk, Daniil, 25, died officially from pneumonia and asthma – even though medics knew it was. coronavirus.
As he became unwell, Danill messaged his family saying: ‘I don’t have the virus. The man with moustache said so.’
His father Serge Golovach said: ‘My heart is torn to pieces.’
Lukashenko’s bizarre claims have meant other fake protections to coronavirus have gained credibility.
An ambulance team brings a suspected COVID-19 patient to the hospital in Minsk
A model dubbed the Belarus Barbie has issued a cringing apology after she went viral claiming she had a ‘virus blocker’ to save her during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ekaterina Koba, 31, also a TV presenter and Instagram star, claimed the ‘badge’ she wore around her neck is available at pharmacies.
‘This is a virus blocker, it works within a radius of several metres,’ she said.
After she was branded a ‘glamorous Covidiot’ Ekaterina issued an ‘apology’ saying: ‘We all make mistakes, and I am no exception….
‘And I want to say this is an extremely good lesson for the future.’