“No one believes that the lockdown will only last 14 days. A shutdown like this is admissible only if it is for absolutely all catering establishments and state institutions. So, let there be a two-week total lockdown,” the Bulgarian Association of Catering Establishments and the Association of Catering Establishments in Bulgaria write in a statement.

“The idea for a partial two-week shutdown of gyms, shopping malls and eating and drinking establishments will not bring about the desired results. In fact, yet again no one is saying what the aims are, at what levels of infection businesses are going to reopen,” the associations state. They are demanding that the economic burden of the restrictions be shared equally by all, and not just by individual sectors, and threaten they will call protests.