Ramaswami: As all of Europe has slowly adopted physical isolation, sport has followed suit, cancelling, postponing or indefinitely calling off events over the past few weeks. One football league though goes on -- the Belarusian Vysshaya Liga. On March 26, Energetik BGU beat BATE Borisov 3-1 to start the 2020 campaign, and many fans did flock the stadium, despite a global warning, and the appeal to practice physical distancing. The president of the Belarus FA Vladimir Bazanov, adamant to start the league said last week, “For what reason should we not start it? Is a state of emergency declared in our country? “There is no critical situation. So we decided that we are starting the championship in a timely manner. Today,” he added. In some ways his statement is understandable seeing as Belarus has reported as few as 81 confirmed cases -- a considerably lower figure than other European countries. Their first positive test came on February 28, which was 9 days after the Champions League match in Italy. There have, as it stands, no deaths have been reported in the nation due to COVID-19. Amazingly enough, one would assume this to be a golden opportunity for the country to get ahead of the pandemic and keep it at bay by restricting the spread. Not so in Belarus though. Run by a president whose actions have invited multiple international sanctions for human rights abuse, Belarus national policy towards the pandemic has been more watch and walk on. President Alexander Lukashenko has been clear that there will be no sudden moves to contain the issue at hand. “The civilized world is going nuts. It is absolute stupidity to close state borders,” Lukashenko said last week. “No one is talking about the virus. In the villages, the tractor will heal everyone. The fields heal everyone.” To combat Covid-19, he has also recommended 40–50 grams of vodka daily, frequenting saunas and farm work. These come across as two different tales in a time when more than 3 billion people are in a lockdown situation across the globe. Italy and Spain may have learnt about the necessity to close down public spaces late -- Italy closed down the country four days after the Champions League fixture, but not too far away lessons are being discarded as life goes on. In addition to Belarus, professional football leagues are still active in Nicaragua, Turkmenistan, Burundi and Myanmar.