Almost 1,000 people recover from coronavirus in a day

“There is a steady trend of an increasing number of recovered patients – almost a thousand per day,” Minister of Health Prof. Kostadin Angelov said at a briefing. The average incidence is currently 518 per 100,000 people. The  percentage of occupied beds for Covid-19 patients with milder symptoms is 40%, and 23% for those in intensive care wards, the minister added. 
“This is the first week in which we are seeing a certain levelling off of the number of positive PCR tests,” state health inspector Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev stated at the briefing. 
Currently, hospitals have all the necessary medicines for the treatment of coronavirus. Bulgaria is 16th in Europe in incidence and 7^th in coronavirus-related mortality on a 14-day basis. 

Education Minister proposes both online and in-person classes in schools

Online training should be alternated with in-person training, so that distance learning should not last for more than 2-3 weeks. This is the proposal by the Ministry of Education, Minister of Education Krasimir Valchev told Nova TV. Next week it will be decided whether students will have to wear a mask during classes in the classrooms as well.
"We offered regional administrative authorities options for alternating students. Our general guidelines are that children should not study online for more than 2-3 weeks. There are currently far fewer cases of coronavirus among younger students than among older ones. Today 44% of the students will study in an electronic environment, and yesterday it was 38-39% ", Minister Valchev explained.

One in three PCR tests in Bulgaria returns positive

Bulgaria has registered a total of 3,945 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours with 10,830 PCR tests performed. 36.4% of all tests returned positive. 915 patients have recovered in the past 24 hours, 47 people died of Covid-19 complications, data from the National Coronavirus Information Portal shows. The number of active cases has increased to 58,699. Currently, 4,478 patients are in hospitals, 276 of them are in intensive care units.
The total number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic has reached 87,311, with which Bulgaria is formally ahead of China in this indicator, BGNES writes.
Among healthcare professionals, so far 3,459 cases of Covid-19 infections have been registered. 181 are the newly registered cases among Bulgarian medics in the last 24 hours.

Passengers to be tested for coronavirus at Varna airport

A laboratory for antigen and PCR tests is to be set up at Varna airport, Dimitar Kostadinov, director of Varna airport announced. 
Passengers and staff will be able to take tests at the laboratory if the need arises. More than 1,000 contact surfaces and areas at the airport are being disinfected using high-tech nano detergent to ensure constant antimicrobial protection, Dimitar Kostadinov said.  

Spain introduces negative PCR test for arrivals from Bulgaria

Spain is introducing a negative PCR test requirement for entry into the country by citizens of 65 countries at high risk of coronavirus, including Bulgaria. The test has to have been performed no earlier than 72 hours prior to arrival in Spain, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has announced.
The negative PCR test requirement will be added to the already existing list of requirements – QR code, measuring of body temperature, visual control, BNR’s correspondent in Barcelona Margarita Ralcheva reports.

MPs raise ceiling on budget deficit

The budget deficit will be able to exceed 3% of the gross domestic product in exceptional circumstances. This was decided by the National Assembly with the adoption of amendments to the Public Finance Act at second reading. According to the current regulations, the budget deficit could not exceed 2% of GDP.
In April, due to the coronavirus crisis, the European Commission allowed each member state to temporarily exceed a deficit of 3%.
Reporting by Dobrina Karambolova.

Economy minister: Bulgaria is coping well with the Covid crisis

“This country is coping well with the Covid crisis compared to the other EU countries,” said Minister of Economy Lachezar Borisov for BNT. He explained that the decline in GDP during the last quarter stood at 8.5%, and that in comparison to the other European countries Bulgaria was 5-6 percentage points better off. “Bulgaria is three times better off than the entire EU as regards deficit and four times as regards debt,” he said.

Compiled by Diana Tsankova

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