850 Lankan students in COVID-19 hit Belarus write to President for early return

Over 800 Sri Lankan students stranded in the Republic of Belarus amidst the COVID-19 pandemic have appealed to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to facilitate early and safe return to Sri Lanka. The number of COVID-19 cases in Belarus has increased by over 400%, to 1981 as of 10 April from 351 on 3 April. In a letter addressed to President Rajapaksa, the Lankan students have said the situation in Belarus will worsen since no quarantine has been implemented. The public continues to be oblivious to the pandemic and are continuing with their daily activities.

It was revealed in the letter that there are more than 850 Sri Lankan students residing in the Republic of Belarus. The Vitebsk State Medical University and Grodno State Medical University are continuing classes online in self isolation, whereas the Gomel State Medical University’s lecturers visit the University hostel to conduct lessons. This obviously makes the self-isolation of the students ineffective and increases chances of infection to its students.

In Vitebsk a hostel has been evacuated after two local students tested positive for the virus. The letter also highlighted that most of the Sri Lankan students live in hostels which have no strict restriction against visitors entering and leaving the hostels. “The students do not feel safe here due the complete negligence of the increasing severity of the situation. The recommendations provided by the WHO have been disregarded.

“Due to these reasons we feel it would be best if we were to continue our studies online, at the safety of our homes in our motherland,” the students stated in their letter to President Rajapaksa. It was claimed that this issue has been previously addressed to the Sri Lankan Embassy in Moscow, but attempts were unsuccessful. “We hope that the concerns of the students will be taken into consideration and necessary actions are taken to ensure the safe return of the students here,” the letter to President Rajapaksa by Lankan students in Belarus appealed.