Vaccination against Covid-19 will be voluntary

Vaccination against coronavirus will not be mandatory and will not be included in any calendars, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said at a briefing in parliament. We would give the opportunity to everyone in the risk groups and those who are outside the risk groups to be vaccinated if they wished. Let all Bulgarian citizens be sure that the vaccine that the EU would order for all European citizens would be of the highest quality available on the market, and the quality would be monitored by the European institutions, the Minister added. Bulgaria will participate in the joint European tender for the vaccine, said the chairwoman of the GERB parliamentary group, Dr. Daniela Daritkova, BTA has reported.

Citizens of Ukraine and Jordan to enter Bulgaria without PCR test from July 31

According to an order by the Minister of Health from July 31, citizens of Ukraine and Jordan can enter Bulgaria without a PCR test. Citizens of North Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Moldova, Israel and Kuwait can enter with a negative PCR test done not more than 72 hours before arrival.These people must present at the border a document containing the names of the person, information about the laboratory that performed the test, the date on which it was done, and fields “method” (PCR) and “result” (Negative). PCR test is not required and no quarantine is required for people arriving from EU countries, the UK, Schengen countries, as well as Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.

Number of recovered patients slowly grows, but mortality rises

Bulgaria has registered 284 new cases of coronavirus for the last 24 hours, which is 4.44% of 6,395 PCR tests performed. The biggest number of new infections is in Sofia - 73, followed by Blagoevgrad - 38, and Ruse - 33. This is shown by the data from the Unified Information Portal. In the past 24 hours, 13 people with coronavirus have passed away, which is the largest number of victims per day in Bulgaria since the beginning of the crisis. 205 people have recovered.

In Bulgaria herd immunity is about 5%

Achieving the so-called "herd immunity" is one of the most effective ways to deal with the coronavirus epidemic, cardiologist Prof. Mladen Grigorov has told the BNR. According to him, this is well below the levels that are considered sufficient, and we still do not know enough about the coronavirus.

VAT on beer, wine, some sports and tourists services lowered to fight crisis

VAT is reduced from 20 to 9% for wine and beer sales in restaurants, commissions of tour operators and charter bus services, gyms and sports facilities. The lowered VAT tax will be in effect from August 1, 2020 till December 31, 2021.

Most of Bulgarians are against tightening of anti-coronavirus measures

44% of Bulgarians say their income has already fallen because of the coronavirus epidemic, according to the latest Gallup International poll of July 24. 9% say they have lost their jobs. 6% have stopped paying loans and 2% - leases. Fewer and fewer Bulgarians expect life in Bulgaria will return to normal by the end of the year. However, the majority of Bulgarians - 59% are against the reintroduction of strict restrictive measures.

Compiled by Darina Grigorova and Radio Bulgaria's News Team

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