Bulgaria extends emergency epidemic situation until July 31

Bulgaria’s caretaker cabinet has adopted a decision to extend the emergency epidemic situation in Bulgaria until July 31, 2021, announced the press office of this country’s government. Despite the recent decrease in the Covid-19 incidence in Bulgaria, the spread of the coronavirus infection affects all districts and all age groups. As at May 9, Bulgaria placed 11^th in the world morbidity ranking on the basis of 14-day statistics. As at May 15, 6.3% of Bulgarians were vaccinated with two vaccine doses and 11.7% of the population received their first vaccine dose.The extension of the emergency epidemic situation aims to prevent the spread of highly contagious coronavirus variants, taking into consideration that the immunization coverage in Bulgaria is still low. 

Rise in number of new coronavirus cases marked after holiday in Bulgaria

406 Covid-19 cases have been registered in Bulgaria for a day. 2.93% out of a total of 13,839 tests returned positive result, according to data of the Single Coronavirus Information Portal. Most of the newly infected were registered in the three most populated Bulgarian districts: Sofia - 89 cases; Plovdiv - 43, and Varna - 27. There are a total of 23,426 registered coronavirus patients in this country at the moment. The number of hospitalized patients continues to decline and has reached 3,533 as 383 patients are in intensive care. 68 people with coronavirus passed away in the past day and 2,423 recovered. 16,870 coronavirus vaccines have been administered for a day and 1,282,717 Bulgarians have already received at least one dose. A total of 515,963 people have completed the immunization cycle.

Epidemiologist Prof. Kozhuharova to become advisor to Minister of Health

Epidemiologist Prof. Dr. Mira Kozhuharova will become an official adviser to the caretaker Minister of Health Dr. Stoycho Katsarov, she has told bTV. The professor does not see a need for change in anti-epidemic measures at this stage, because they are adequate. "By increasing the percentage of vaccinated people, we could reduce the places where wearing of masks is required," the epidemiologist said. Viruses mutate constantly and there is no point in creating panic. I hope that we would face the challenges calmly. A good preparation of the healthcare system is the right way to act. The percentage of vaccinated people in Bulgaria is not high enough, especially when it comes to the elderly, Kozhuharova added.

70,000 Bulgarian patients left without general practitioner in 2020

In 2020, almost 70,000 Bulgarian patients found out that they were left without a general practitioner. These people learned that their GPs stopped practicing their profession when they tried to contact them due to health problems, announced Bulgaria’s Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva at an international scientific conference organized by the Institute for the State and the Law. The state authorities must find a mechanism to address such problems, contented Ombudsman Kovacheva. According to Diana Kovacheva, in 2020 she received more than 1,000 complaints in the field of healthcare related to the access to healthcare in remote areas, the quality of medical services, suspicions of medical errors, technical errors in vaccine certificates, etc. At the moment, it is not possible to correct wrong data in vaccination certificates, said Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva. Citizens who received two different vaccines also have a problem. "Those who received two different vaccines are still unable to get a vaccine certificate. I hope that this problem will be solved", noted Diana Kovacheva.

Compiled by: Gergana Mancheva

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