In his address to the people of Tajikistan on the occasion of the anniversary of the end of World War II, Emomali Rahmon also touched upon the fight against coronavirus, assuring the population that the country would cope with this problem.
Addressing the people of Tajikistan, the President said that since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic at the end of last year, the government has taken all necessary measures to prevent its spread. “We managed to keep the situation under control for 4 months, but at the end of April the first cases were registered,” Rahmon emphasized.
Many people in Tajikistan didn’t agree with the President’s statement. Stormy discussions have already begun on social networks regarding the truthfulness of Rahmon’s words. ACCA asked the opinion of an expert from Tajikistan, who has worked in the healthcare system for many years.
– Why did the President’s words about the situation with the coronavirus pandemic provoke such discussions in society?
– The people, driven to despair, have the right to discuss and condemn the actions of their leadership, but in this case we are talking about outright lie from the President, which the whole world has heard today. Firstly, what kind of coronavirus pandemic has been spoken about by the President since the end of last year, if the World Health Organization announced the pandemic only on March 11 this year. By this, the President wanted to say that he was well informed. Or what? So, why then did the authorities do nothing to prevent the current situation?
– The President said that the authorities managed to restrain the spread of coronavirus in Tajikistan for 4 months…
– What kind of restraint can we talk about, when Tajikistan closed its borders only on April 10? By this time, hundreds of coronavirus patients were already in neighboring countries. Even so, the authorities were not able to properly provide two-week quarantine for citizens who returned to the country from other countries. Corrupt officials released dozens of quarantined people for a bribe; relatives of officials avoided quarantine due to the use of their official position. At the same time, no quarantine was announced in the country. Mass events continued to take place, all markets and enterprises worked. No preventive measures were taken. Moreover, through their actions, the authorities did their best to spread the coronavirus. The biggest mistake was the celebration of Navruz, when more than 35 thousand people gathered at the stadium of the city of Khujand, and before that, thousands of schoolchildren and students rehearsed a theatrical performance daily for a month. This all happened despite the appeal of the World Health Organization to the government of Tajikistan to refrain from holding public events.
– At that time, patients with coronavirus have already been identified in Tajikistan. Is it true?
– Of course, but doctors, under threat of dismissal and prison, were forced to be silent about it. The worst thing was that they didn’t even have experience interacting with this virus; they tried to consult with colleagues from other countries. Authorities admitted the first cases only on April 30, just before the visit of the delegation of the World Health Organization to the country. At the same time, authorities forced to clean crowded hospitals from patients with coronavirus who didn’t have a fever. Only patients in serious condition were left. By this, the authorities further aggravated the situation in the country, as sick people continue to infect their relatives, who in turn continue to work, and so the infection spreads at a high rate.
– The media repeatedly reported a lack of protective equipment and medicines for the treatment of patients with coronavirus…
– Probably, this is the biggest incident in this story. If there was no coronavirus in the country before April 30, then where did the huge batches of humanitarian aid from other countries and international organizations disappear, which arrived in the country much earlier? Let me remind you, then almost all the media wrote that hospital doctors are forced to buy protective suits. In other words, all humanitarian aid was simply for sale, and this continues to this day; therefore, such a large percentage of cases among doctors. They actually work without protection, in ordinary robes and masks. Fortunately, now the population has begun to help them, but this is still not enough. It is known that a new batch of humanitarian aid began to arrive in the country, and I hope that this help will reach the doctors, and they will not need to buy it with their own money. The fact is that the medical sector in the country is controlled by the daughter of President, Parvin, who, with her brother Rustam Emomali, opened a number of pharmaceutical companies and excluded many competitors from this market by exerting pressure. Thanks to their activities, today medicines are getting more expensive every day in the country’s pharmacies, and people are forced to buy them at any price because of panic.
– So, the President’s family decided to make money on the coronavirus pandemic.
– Yes, and not just by selling humanitarian aid and medicines. Tajikistan is on the list of the poorest countries. So, international banks and governments of many countries have already allocated tens of millions as aid, and this figure is growing every day. Today we are talking about hundreds of millions US dollars, and, of course, most of these funds will be misused. In any case, the world economic crisis in connection with the pandemic would affect Tajikistan. However, the country’s leadership decided to make money on this as well. Therefore, everything said by the President in his address is an absolute lie. The authorities organized all this intentionally, so the people today are outraged.
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