Lukashenko claims to have had asymptomatic coronavirus
MINSK. July 28 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said he was sick with coronavirus, but survived the disease without feeling any symptoms.
"Today, you see a man who managed to withstand the coronavirus standing," Lukashenko was quoted by the BelTA state-run news agency as saying on Tuesday, citing a medical conclusion issued on Monday.
He made the announcement at a meeting with senior national security officials and personnel during a visit to military base No. 3214 of the Internal Troops of the Interior Ministry.
He apologized for his coarse voice. "I have had to do a lot of talking lately," Lukashenko said.
He said he was glad he had no symptoms. "Like I said, 97% of our population who carry this bug are asymptomatic. Thank goodness I ended up in the same asymptomatic cohort. Finally, I too got into the golden fund of Belarus by surviving this virus," Lukashenko said.
It is unclear in which time period the president was a carrier of the virus.
A pro-government Telegram-channel, Belarusian Insider, said that, "according to the medics accompanying him, the president has not infected anyone."
"Alexander Lukashenko presumably caught the virus during a foreign trip," the channel's authors said.
Earlier Lukashenko repeatedly expressed his skepticism about the coronavirus, calling it "coronapsychosis."