Turkmenistan and Tajikistan still claim to be spared the coronavirus. All other countries have taken rigorous measures in some cases. One country is more successful than the other.
Is the word “coronavirus” banned in Turkmenistan? The headline, which was spread worldwide for a short time, seemed to fit in with the isolated Central Asian country and its eccentric President Gurbanguly Berdymuchammedow. In fact, information leaflets on hygiene rules that contained the word had apparently been retracted. The president does not speak of the plague. Like a ban does not come. There are no officially confirmed cases. And yet everything is different in the country: flights were discontinued, Turkmen people were brought home from abroad, and the country actually has a kind of quarantine with restricted freedom of movement – without justification. This has exacerbated the already precarious supply situation. From Berdymuchammedow’s point of view, life goes on normally: for World Health Day, he organized a mass bike race.
