Number Of COVID-19 Cases In Belarus Crosses 40,000 Cases Mark

As of 28 May, 40,764 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Belarus (+906 in the 24 hours), the Healthcare Ministry reports. A total of 17,390 patients recovered and were discharged from hospitals (+730 in the 24 hours). So far, 224 patients (+4 in the 24 hours) have died since the outbreak in the country. Belarus has performed 512,418 tests (13,169 in the past 24 hours), that is 6,9% of all the tests showed positive results for the coronavirus infection. Lithuanian professor Saulius Čaplinskas believes that the country is starting to cope with the epidemic, when the percentage of positive test results per day is 3% or less. Belarus is one of the five countries in Europe with the largest cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases registered in the last 14 days. It is also in the top 10 countries by the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. There was no peak in the incidence of coronavirus infections in Belarus and never will be: after reaching the plateau a gradual decrease in the number of cases is expected. Local health authorities expect the steady reduction in COVID-19 cases in late May-early June. The WHO experts point out the need to strengthen measures of physical distancing at individual, community and national levels in Belarus and gave a list of recommendations. Despite Belarus has reportedly reached a plateau, the recommendations of the Healthcare Ministry remain the same. According to Belarusian scientists, the total number of cases in Belarus can reach 56 thousand people. The country passed the middle of the epidemic on 15 May, when the number of cases reached 50% of the predicted total. A decrease in the incidence rate to 100 new cases per day may start on 20 July.