New school year begins amidst enhanced anti-epidemic measures

Temperature measurement, dividing lines in the corridors, more hours outdoors, isolators for students with viral symptoms, wearing masks indoors and optionally in classrooms - these measures will be in force in schools because of the Covid-19 epidemic. All 2,400 schools across the country are ready for the start of the school year, Bulgaria's Education Ministry announced. Some 300 out of a total of 700,000 pupils will start school from home due to health concerns.

Chief Health Inspector: Schools will not be closed and checkpoints will not be built

Kunchev denied rumors that schools would be closed at the end of October due to the coronavirus epidemic and checkpoints at entry and exit points of cities would be placed again. The Covid-19 morbidity in Bulgaria does not necessitate such measures, he told Nova TV. "I am frightened by the level of spreading false news, rumours and all sorts of conspiracy theories," Bulgaria's state health inspector Angel Kunchev said on the opening day of the school year in Bulgaria. According to him, too many people in our country do not have criteria to distinguish the right from the wrong. The health inspector believes that the same measures cannot be applied for all schools. "First we will act within the class of pupils and if there are infected pupils in more than one class, then we can think about moving to online learning for the whole school," said Angel Kunchev.

Psychologist on children's psyche amidst Covid-19 measures in schools

"The social distancing will be felt today, when only students from I, V, VIII and XII grades will be physically present in the school yards," school psychologist Gergana Krumova said in an interview for the BNR on the first day of the new school year in Bulgaria. Krumova stressed that anti-epidemic measures in schools are a serious concern. "To meet face to face, to smile, to recognize the emotion that the other carries, all this is extremely important," said Gergana Krumova about the mandatory masks at school. According to her, wearing protective equipment will not hurt the psyche of children if it is explained to them that this is how they could protect their teachers and parents. The psychologist defined the word "isolation room" for the premises where children with symptoms of coronavirus will be isolated, as inappropriate and arousing extremely high anxiety.

Bulgaria reports 143 new cases of Covid-19

A total of 4.5% of the 3,163 PCR tests performed in the last 24 hours in Bulgaria have returned positive, data of the National Coronavirus Information Portal shows. Nine people have died and 163 have been cured in the past 24 hours. There are currently 730 patients in hospital with 49 of them in intensive care units. The highest number of new infections has been reported in Burgas - 24, followed by Kardzhali with 19, Stara Zagora with 15, Sofia and Blagoevgrad with 12 each. The active cases of Covid-19 in Bulgaria currently stand at 4,402. Since the beginning of the epidemic 18,061 people have been infected with coronavirus and 729 have lost their lives. 

BNB governor: Banks entered the crisis well prepared

Bulgaria’s banks entered the current crisis well prepared, because a lot was done in the recent years, the Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank Dimitar Radev pointed out during the opening of the new academic year at the University of National and World Economy, quoted by BGNES. Dimitar Radev emphasized the unprecedented asset quality review and the stress tests performed by the Bulgarian National Bank and the European Central Bank. In his words, in the beginning of the crisis, the banks undertook additional measures to boost their liquidity. The good condition of the banks allowed them to create conditions for mitigating the consequences of the crisis for business and citizens. The main instrument used for this purpose is the so-called “private moratorium” on bank loan payments. More than 14,000 enterprises and over 93,000 households have benefitted from this measure and got payment deferrals to the tune of EUR 4.6 billion.

Compiled by: Ioan Kolev

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