Bulgaria sets aside nearly 156 million euro for Covid-19 vaccines

At today’s meeting the government allocated about 64 million euro to provide vaccines in the fight against Covid-19. "With them, a total of BGN 305 million /about EUR 156 million/ of Bulgarian taxpayers’ money will go for vaccines. The vaccines are free and are only administered at the request of citizens," Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said and added that the vaccines have been approved by the European Medicines Agency and the European Commission. 
During the cabinet meeting, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov announced that vaccination was going according to plan and 3,844 people had already been vaccinated across the country.

60/40 wage support scheme to be extended until September 2021

Bulgaria’s cabinet extended the 60/40 measure until the end of March at today's online meeting. In the coming weeks, its implementation will be guaranteed until September 2021, this country’s Premier Boyko Borissov announced. 
The state authorities will continue supporting tourism and transport through the 80/20 measure, and as of January 1, the 75/0 measure will be introduced for closed businesses. 
"Today we are allocating EUR 153 million from the 2021 budget to extend the 60/40 wage support scheme until March, which will help 180,000 people keep their jobs. With another EUR 153 million, we guarantee the implementation of the measure until September next year", Premier Borissov emphasized. So far, over EUR 321 million has been paid out under the 60/40 wage support scheme, which had preserved 250,000 jobs.

Bulgaria reports 1,438 new cases of Covid-19

1,438 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Bulgaria in the past 24 hours. 17.79% of the 8,084 tests performed have returned positive. Of these, 3,703 were PCR tests and 4,381 were antigen tests, shows data of the Single Information Portal, updated at midnight. The highest number of new cases were in Sofia-246, followed by Varna-171 and Plovdiv-128. 
154 patients have died and 2,919 have recovered in the past 24 hours. 5,023 patients are being treated in hospitals, of whom 474 in intensive care units.

Drought and pandemics have put land market under strain

Land transactions shrank in 2020 and prices fell, Stayko Staykov, chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Agricultural Land Owners told the BNR's Horizont program. 
The whole of eastern Bulgaria has been drastically affected by drought and this put the market in Dobrudzha under strain. The prices there are below 100 euro per hectare. Unexpectedly, there has been an alignment with the prices of land in northwestern Bulgaria. Land in southern Bulgaria is the cheapest; in Haskovo, Kardzhali, Strandzha - Sakar. The supply is low. During a pandemic land is sold only in exceptional circumstances. Disagreements among the many industry organizations have been hampering the adoption of a new Land Act. Bulgaria is the only country in the EU without a single Chamber of Agriculture, Staykov added.

Compiled by Darina Grigorova

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