'Drink vodka, attend saunas': A world leader's advice on fighting COVID-19

As the coronavirus death toll around the world continues to increase exponentially, many leaders across the world have downplayed the gravity of the situation.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko recently mocked what he calls the ''panic''gripping countries that have imposed lockdowns to minimise deaths.

He shrugged off concerns about theCOVID-19outbreak and refused to order his citizens into lockdown.

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''The world has gone mad from the coronavirus. It can be easily cured by drinking vodka, working hard in the countrysideand attending saunas,'' he added.

He's not the only one. US President Donald Trump a month ago had claimed that the pandemic "would magically disappear by April". However, the number of cases in the country have increased unprecedentedly.

More than 100,000 cases have been registered in the country. Today, Trump stirred a controversy again by claiming that "100,000 deaths" amount to a situation under control.

Brazil's own Donald Trump, as he has been famously dubbed, has also continued to downplay the situation, claiming the virus "will not shut down Brazil's economy".

Analysts have continuously pointed out how lockdown measures can effectively control the community spread of the virus, which is the most critical stage of the pandemic.

Mexican PresidentAndres Manuel Lopez Obradordismissed the social distancing, a precautionary measure for coronavirus saying,''You have to hug, nothing happens''.

In pics:Ignorance is bliss: World leaders who denied the gravity of COVID-19 crisis

Instead of telling people to stay home and self-quarantine themselves,he tweeted a video in which he encouraged people to got out and eat. Many protesters across the Mexico-US border on the Mexican side have been demanding a complete ban on inter-border movement, considering the fact that the US is now the epicentre of the virus.