Schools will not be closed as general rule

“The number of school children infected to date is 469, and the number of teachers is 453”, Minister of Education Krasimir Valchev has told Nova TV. Teachers get infected at the same rate as other active people of their age. The system is not isolated from what is happening in the country. The easiest thing would be to close down schools but that means sacrificing, to a lesser or greater extent, children’s right to an education. We have chosen to act locally, as general decisions would be wrong,” Minister Valchev said. “There are thresholds set down by the minister of health. If 15% of school children or teachers at a given school are absent because of Covid-like symptoms the school closes."

Record 2,243 new coronavirus cases out of 7,659 PCR tests

2,243 positive cases, or 29.29% out of the total of 7,659 PCR tests performed, Single Coronavirus Information Portal data show. Once again the highest number of newly registered Covid-19 infections is in Sofia - 913, followed by Plovdiv - 209 and Blagoevgrad – 130. The number of people with coronavirus who are in hospital has also spiked – 2,130, of whom 149 are in intensive care. Another record has been shattered at 42 deaths over the past 24 hours. 296 have recovered. The number of active coronavirus cases has exceeded 20,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic and now stands at 20,346.

"Pirogov" Hospital will not close

"It is possible to reduce the volume of work, but in no case will the activity of "Pirogov“ stop and whoever can, will be treated," Prof. Asen Baltov, director of the hospital, has told bTV. He assured that everything necessary would be done to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the hospital. Currently, 60 of the patients are infected, and among the staff there are 61 people with Covid-19. Which requires the work of the hospital to be reorganized. The proffessor added the spread of the coronavirus in the capital city was of diffuse type.

Herd immunity in Bulgaria is nowhere in sight

We are witnessing different epidemiological situation in seperate Bulgarian regions. That is why adopting local measures is an adequate decision, pulmonologist Professor Kosta Kostov has told BNR. Bulgaria’s health system is very close to the limit, because of the high number of Covid-19 patients who need active treatment. According to Professor Kostov’s, if stricter measures needed to be taken, they should last for at least 60 days, in order to yield the necessary results.

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Compiled by Diana Tsankova