Mass vaccination could be resumed next week: Prof. Todor Kantardzhiev

“The mass vaccination against coronavirus could be resumed by the end of next week, as another 56,000 Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are expected in the country,” Prof. Todor Kantardzhiev, Director of the National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases said in an interview for the BNR.
He stated that none of three vaccines administered in this country has more undesirable effects than the vaccines administered to children for years. In Dr. Todor Kantardzhiev’s words Bulgaria has not been placed at a significant disadvantage in the distribution of vaccines in the EU.
“High-level political talks are being held on how to compensate for the inability of the companies to keep the promises for which they have been paid,” he said.
“We are now waiting for the written position of the European regulator on the quality of the AstraZeneca vaccine so as to resume the mass immunization in the country,” the epidemiologist said, and added that the quality and the undesirable effects of the vaccine had been a “little overdramatized”.

Coronavirus patients are growing younger: Health Minister

“The coronavirus patients are growing younger and that is a national tendency,” Health Minister Prof. Kostadin Angelov said in Smolyan.
In his words there are no concerns of hospital beds running out, and at medical establishments which are at increased risk there will be more Covid-beds. An inspection is to take place at the hospital in Blagoevgrad to clarify all circumstances surrounding the death of a coronavirus patient who recently gave birth, Minister Angelov said.

AstraZeneca with position that its vaccines are safe

AstraZeneca states, in a position released by AstraZeneca, Bulgaria, that an analysis of safety data covering more than 17 million doses of the vaccine administered has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary thromboembolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia.
The position reads that the reported numbers of these types of events for the AstraZeneca vaccine are not greater than the number that would have occurred naturally in the unvaccinated population,

PM Boyko Borissov: Proportional distribution of vaccines is the fairest way not to have the blame shifted to us

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov stated that he has asked for guarantees from the European Commission and from the European Medicines Agency of a proportional distribution of vaccines.
“After the letter we sent to the EC I asked that my statement be put down on record that I want to know who shall give the guarantees and the answer was – the European Medicines Agency and the European Commission,” he said.
Boyko Boirssov stated further that the proportional distribution of vaccines is the fairest way “not to try to have the blame shifted to us without giving us any data.” According to PM Borissov the European Commission indicated which the approved vaccines are and Bulgaria ordered them all but the issue at hand is that they are not arriving according to schedule.

Almost 7,000 coronavirus patients being treated in hospital

2,019 is the number of newly registered Covid-19  infections over the past 24 hours, or almost 19% of the 10,614 tests performed, data from the Single Coronavirus  Information Portal show. The highest number of newly registered infections is in Sofia -552, Burgas – 223, Varna – 172 and in Plovdiv – 136.

1,118 coronavirus patients have recovered and 38 have died in the past 24 hours. 6,948 are being treated in hospital, 522 of them in intensive care. 34 healthcare workers have contracted Covid-19 in the past 24 hours. The active cases are 42,046.
1,244 vaccination doses were administered yesterday, bringing the total number to 337,904.
A total of 277,878 people have been infected with Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, 11,234 have died.

Tourist season opens in Bulgaria on 1 May

“People who want to come to Bulgaria as tourists will have to be vaccinated, have antibodies or present a negative PCR test result,” Health Minister Prof. Kostadin Angelov said in Rozhen.
The tourist season is to open on 1 May. The measures regarding accommodation facilities, catering and entertainment establishments are to be approved tomorrow. “The idea is to open the season a little earlier, which, in the conditions of pandemic will afford us an opportunity to observe the measures of the health authorities,” Minister of Tourism Mariyana Nikolova stated on her part. She added that this country supports the introduction of a digital vaccination certificate within the EU – something that is expected to happen next week.

External debt has increased by 2.3 billion Leva in past year of coronavirus pandemic

A drop in export by 8% and in import by 10%, a rise in the unemployment rate by 170,000 lost jobs and a growth of the external debt by 2.3 billion Leva – this is the picture of the past year of coronavirus pandemic, said Radosvet Radev, chair of the Bulgarian Industrial Association in an interview for the BNR.

In his words the withholding of investments and the drop in consumption are worrying. Radosvet Radev also predicted cascading bankruptcies of companies after April when the moratorium on credits will be lifted.

According to Krassen Stanchev from the Institute for Market Economics, large fiscal reserves were accumulated which cushioned the blow. He added that almost 1.4 million people have not been included in any support scheme as the measures were accessible to no more than “10% of the economic entities”.

Tour operators oppose imposition of quarantine on holidaymakers returning from Africa

People working in the tourist industry are against the imposition of 10-day quarantine, followed by a PCR test, on arrivals from Africa.
“The order of the health minister is breeding distrust and fear among the users of tourist services and is guillotining the tentative attempts to revive this activity,” the “Future for tourism” association states.
According to data from tour operators, during the three months in which charter flights to Zanzibar have been organized, only one client has been invited for retesting and the results are not yet known, all other tests are negative. “Quarantining signals the doom of the planned and pre-paid trips to Zanzibar, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia,” the association states.

Compiled by Diana Tsankova

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