MINSK, Belarus — More than 2 million Belarusians, including doctors and nurses, took part in a government-decreed national day of civic labor Saturday despite worries about the country’s sharply rising coronavirus infections.
The work, including painting, tree-planting and clean-ups, was ordered by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has dismissed concerns about the virus even though Belarus has recorded more cases than neighboring Ukraine, a county with four times as many people.
Lukashenko, a former collective farm manager, has retained many Soviet-era practices during his quarter-century in power, including the day of civic labor — known as a “subbotnik” from the Russian word for Saturday.
“Subbotnik is the good that we took from the Soviet period, that’s the whole ideology,” Lukashenko said as he helped plant trees.
The Belarusian government has not imposed social-distancing requirements or restricted public activities in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Of the hundreds of people working along with the president, none were seen wearing masks.
The government said late Saturday that a total of 2.3 million people took part, about a quarter of the country’s population.
The subbotnik order called for participation by all state employees — state enterprises and services account for about 55 percent of Belarus’ workforce — although doctors and nurses were given the option of forfeiting some of their wages, a loss of about $3 for a doctor.
“No one protests, although everyone understands the absurdity of this situation,” Nurse Nina Yegorova said while she painted buildings at a hospital near Minsk.
Belarus reported 817 new virus cases Saturday, the country’s highest single-day increase. It has reported a total of 9,590 confirmed infections and 67 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
