MINSK. May 24 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that he was absent for several days because he contracted adenovirus and did not initially take time off to rest.
"Adenovirus, or what was it? Adenovirus. It's nothing," the First Man's Pool Telegram channel quoted Lukashenko as saying at a healthcare conference.
The illness "can be cured within three days," Lukashenko said. "Yet I could not take the time [off] to recover - I had to visit Moscow, [there were] voluntary cleaning events, Grodno, and later on, Gomel - and things kind of piled up," Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko dismissed rumors of his poor health as nothing but "idle talk on messengers and Telegram channels." "So, I am not going to die, guys. I will keep bothering you for a very long time," he said.