Third coronavirus wave affects young people, pregnant women and entire families

Whole families, many mothers and pregnant women have been infected with coronavirus and many young people are in hospital, Minister of Health Prof. Kostadin Angelov said at the regular weekly briefing of the health authorities. In his words, the third wave of Covid-19 is nothing like the second, but this country will come out of it successfully. Minister Angelov added that the medical establishments were well prepared - mostly due to the fact that many of the medics have been vaccinated and there is no shortage of doctors. Talks on providing additional vaccines continue and the decision is expected to be made at the highest level tonight, Prof. Kostadin Angelov said. There will also be an additional delivery of 6,000 doses of remdesivir.

Record spike in number of Covid-19 infections and deaths

The number of coronavirus patients has gone up by 23% over the past week and the number of deaths - by 5%, General Ventsislav Mutafchiyski, Head of the National Operational Headquarters reported. 
He added that numbers were record-high as 661 per 100,000 people currently have Covid-19, while 20 per 100,000 people lose their lives because of the disease. At the same time, the number of occupied hospital beds for patients without complications went up by 17% while the number of occupied beds in intensive care wards rose by 22%. Currently, 69% of hospital beds for non-severe coronavirus patients are occupied, as well as 70% of those for patients in need of intensive care.
Bulgaria ranks 6^th in the European Union in terms of 14-day incidence, while the in the number of deaths Bulgaria is 4th, Chief Health Inspector Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev said. "If we allow gross non-compliance with the measures, doubling of the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths is possible," he warned. The highest number of patients is reported in the districts of Burgas, Silistra, Sofia, Vratsa and Pleven, and the lowest in Targovishte, Razgrad, Kardzhali, Vidin and Pazardzhik.

25.6% of coronavirus tests return positive result

4,375 new cases of coronavirus were registered in Bulgaria in the past 24 hours, which is 25.55% of the 17,120 tests performed, according to the data of the Single Coronavirus Information Portal at midnight.
Most of the newly registered infections are in Sofia – 1,105, followed by Plovdiv - 367, Burgas - 364, and Varna - 362.
Currently, there are 9,125 Covid-19 patients in hospitals as 743 of them are in intensive care. 106 patients with coronavirus died in the past 24 hours and 2,709 recovered.
401,309 vaccines have already been administered in this country, while the total number of people vaccinated with a second dose has reached 79,977.

Measures pertaining to non-food stores relaxed – but only for a few hours

Hours after Minister of Economy Lachezar Borisov announced the activities of big non-food stores would be reorganized so they can reopen, it was announced that there would be no easing of restrictions after all.
At this morning’s weekly briefing by the medical authorities Minister Borisov announced that non-food stores would be able to reopen if they restrict their customer area to 300 square meters. There followed an angry reaction by restaurateurs who demanded that their eating establishments reopen under the same conditions.
Late this afternoon the Ministry of Economy press service announced that by order of PM Boyko Borissov and with a view to ensuring equal treatment of the different branches, as well as because there are just 6 days to go until the end of the 10-day period of tighter restrictions put in place in the country, the minister of economy retracted the instructions issued earlier in the day.  

Compiled by Diana Tsankova

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