Number of coronavirus hospitalizations drops below 5,000

518  is the number of newly registered  coronavirus cases in the country out of 14,126 tests performed in the past 24 hours, a positivity rate  of under 4%, Single Coronavirus  Portal data show.
The highest number of new infections is again in Sofia  - 62, followed by Varna – 42, Blagoevgrad - 41 and Plovdiv - 39. For the first time since the start of the third wave of coronavirus the number of Covid-19 patients being treated in hospital has dropped below 5,000, down to 4,832 , of whom 504 in intensive care. The number of recoveries in the past 24 hours is 1,991, the number of deaths - 49, the number of active cases is 34,602.
33,237 doses of vaccine have been administered  over the past 24 hours, bringing the number of vaccinations to 1.1 million. More than 400,000 people have contracted coronavirus in Bulgaria since the start of the pandemic.

Green vaccination corridors to function over the weekend

The so-called green corridors (walk in vaccination centres) will continue to function over the weekend, and next week new instructions are expected from the caretaker minister of health, Prof. Asen Baltov, Director of Pirogov emergency hospital said for bTV.
In his words the option for making vaccinations available to all should remain open. Almost 46,000 people have already availed themselves of the green corridors – 16,000 of them have received their second dose of vaccine.
Prof. Baltov stated further that the idea is being considered of creating conditions for more GPs to administer Covid-19 vaccines as they would be able to accumulate individuals for vaccination more quickly from their patient lists.
Prof. Asen Baltov predicted that we shall probably have collective immunity by the end of June.

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences to present coronavirus vaccine in the autumn

A Bulgarian vaccine against coronavirus is to be presented before the world scientific community at a congress in the autumn, Prof. Andrey Chorbanov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences said for BNT.  
There will probably be two formulations – for inhalation and for immunization. According to Prof. Chorbanov several countries have already displayed an interest in the vaccine though not Bulgaria. “Science in this country is accustomed to being neglected,” he said.
Prof. Chorbanov stated that people who have recovered from coronavirus and those who are vaccinated do not transmit the virus to an enormous degree which means they do not need to wear masks. People who had Covid-19 in March-April still have immunity.

Indian coronavirus variant may soon reach Bulgaria

“The Indian variant of Covid-19 is going to reach the country within days,” Dr. Georgi Mindov, who is a general practitioner, said for Nova TV.  
According to clinical studies it is identical to the other strains but can cause more severe lung inflammation. The European Medicines Agency has issued a position that the mRNA vaccines can neutralize this coronavirus variant.

Compiled by Diana Tsankova

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