Borissov orders restart of work of National Operational Headquarters

The outgoing Prime Minister has ordered the Minister of Health Kostadin Angelov to resume the work of the National Operational Headquarters until a new government is formed. This became clear today, at an extraordinary briefing of GERB. According to Borissov, most parties in parliament have called for the closure of the National Operational Headquarters. Boyko Borissov also commented that the members of the National Operational Headquarters are civil servants and the headquarters is an advisory body to the Prime Minister, so its closure came as a consequence of the resignation of the government.

It is too early to talk about herd immunity against Covid-19 in Bulgaria

In addition to well-known Covid-19 mutations like those from South Africa, Berlin, Romania and others around the world, a new variant has been detected in northern Bulgaria and the Bulgarian health authorities are now studying it. In an interview with Nova TV, immunologist Acad. Bogdan Petrunov commented that due to the great variability of the virus, a fourth wave of Covid-19 was possible and it could require constant development of new vaccines. The immunologist is rather skeptical when it comes to herd immunity at the backdrop of the current pace of immunization. Acad. Petrunov adds that some of the pharmaceutical companies have already started developing a third dose of the vaccine, which is to be administered in November.

Easing of measures in Bulgaria must be slowed down

Chief State Health Inspector Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev, a member of the National Operational Headquarters for combating Covid-19 has warned that easing of measures would inevitably affect morbidity levels. In an interview with BNR, he said he would recommend that the upcoming opening of nightclubs be postponed. According to Kunchev, it was necessary to have a coordinating body in the fight against Covid-19, because the epidemic process continues and decisions must be made. According to the health expert, "Bulgaria is moving on the edge of the razor and it has been quite successful", while the high mortality is also caused by the poor health status of Bulgarians - heart attacks, strokes, obesity, etc. Speaking about vaccines, the epidemiologist commented that it was necessary to have a campaign with precise and clear messages in order to inform citizens about the benefits of vaccines.

Nearly 14% of Covid-19 tests return positive result

There are 1,076 new Covid-19 cases in Bulgaria, according to data of the Single Coronavirus Information Portal. 13.8 percent of a total of 7,822 tests performed returned positive result. The highest number of new infections is in Sofia - 277, in Varna - 114 and Burgas - 108. There were 1,204 recoveries during the past day. 38 people passed away and 9,204 patients are in hospital as 797 of them are in intensive care wards. 3,087 doses of vaccines were administered yesterday and with them the total number has reached 637,216. There are 128,020 people who have already received a second dose.

Еditor: Darina Grigorova

English: Alexander Markov

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