Bulgaria extends emergency epidemic situation by one month

 “The epidemic situation is being extended by one month,” outgoing Health Minister Kostadin Angelov announced at today’s cabinet sitting. Kostadin Angelov stated that the country was coming out of the third wave of coronavirus successfully. The sitting of the outgoing government was streamed on Facebook. Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev is being assigned the task of beginning consultations with the European Commission for the final submission of Bulgaria’s draft recovery and resilience plan, outgoing PM Boyko Borissov stated. Tomislav Donchev stated that the government was ready to begin ex-ante checks of the plan. When they are completed, the document will have to be approved by the European Commission and the Council of the EU, Tomislav Donchev stated. 

21% drop in newly registered coronavirus cases in Bulgaria on a weekly basis

1,850 is the number of newly registered coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, a positivity rate of 10.2% of the 17,987 tests performed, Single Coronavirus Information Portal data show. The number of active cases is 52,509. The highest number of new infections was registered in Sofia - 375, followed by Plovdiv - 180 and Varna with 170. 7,480 coronavirus patients are being treated in hospital, 714 of them in intensive care. 81 have died in the past 24 hours, a 14% drop in the number of deaths for the week. 3,375 is the number of recoveries. 16, 749  doses of vaccine have been administered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of vaccinations to over 750,000. The number of people who have received their second dose of vaccine is 177,995.

One fifth of Bulgarians have had mental problems because of Covid-19 pandemic: study

“Bulgarians comply with 79% of the anti-epidemic restrictions imposed,” Dr. Irina Georgieva from New Bulgarian University said in an interview for Horizont channel. “Out of 44 restrictions applied, Bulgaria introduced 37 which is the highest number, whereas Sweden introduced 13.The tendency is that the more restrictive the measures the less they are complied with. The other conclusion from the study is that the lower the level of trust in the government, the fewer people observe any measures.” The study indicates that 10% of Bulgarians have developed depression during the pandemic and 3% have developed panic disorder. 

National Assembly Health Committee supports purchase of Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine

The National Assembly Health Committee has accepted the request of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) to task this country’s Council of Ministers "to take all necessary actions", in order to provide access to the Russian Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine. BSP submitted such a request in February, but it was rejected back then. The Bulgarian Socialist Party justified its proposal by stating that "many countries have made use of their right to negotiate vaccines, outside the general agreements concluded by the European Union".“By law, we are not allowed to import medicinal products that are not approved by the European Medicines Agency, said the Executive Director of the Bulgarian Drug Agency Bogdan Kirilov. The National Assembly Health Committee's decision on the Russian vaccine will be put to the vote in the plenary hall.

Compiled by: Gergana Mancheva and Radio Bulgaria’s news team

English version: Radio Bulgaria’s English team

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