Press releases

22 Apr 2020

Police conduct checks on over 10,000 Belarusians in self-isolation

An archive photo

MINSK, 22 April (BelTA) - More than 10,000 people have been checked for the past 24 hours for the observance of the self-isolation requirements, Olga Chemodanova, the head of the information and public relations department - the spokeswoman for the Internal Affairs Ministry, said during a live stream on the YouTube channel of the National Press Center, BelTA has learned.

“Over the past 24 hours, police officers together with representatives of the epidemiological service have undertaken visits to homes of 10,432 people in self-isolation. Of them, 530 people were not home during the police checks. The reasons why they were not home were established. This means that these people were not far away from their homes," said Olga Chemodanova. She added that the whereabouts of 29 citizens had not been established at the time of the home visits or after.

To date, more than 200 administrative protocols have been drawn up against those who have defied the self-isolation rules.

“We expect our citizens to be interested in fulfilling the requirements of self-isolation. We do not seek to draw up as many administrative protocols as possible and thus make people self-isolate. We count on the self-awareness of each person, on understanding of the problem, and strict fulfillment of the requirements,” the head of the department noted.

“At the same time, there has been a case when a person who was supposed to be in self-isolation left for another city. Of course, this will not be left unattended,” Olga Chemodanova stressed. The person will be brought to administrative responsibility under Article 23.4 of the Administrative Offences Code which provides for a fine of up to 50 base amounts.

People who can pose a danger to others are required to self-isolate, said Inna Karaban, the deputy head of the department for hygiene, epidemiology and disease prevention at the Healthcare Ministry. “These are sick people, the first-level contacts (they are on a sick leave under medical supervision) and also second-level contacts that are showing acute respiratory disease symptoms. They should not flout the self-isolation rule, because they are potential sources of infection,” Inna Karaban said.