Bulgaria’s government adopted national pandemic preparedness plan

Bulgaria’s Minister of Health Prof. Kostadin Angelov, the Chairman of the National Task force against the spread of coronavirus, Major General Dr. Ventsislav Mutafchyiski and the Executive Director of Pirogov emergency hospital Prof. Asen Baltov presented the national plan of Bulgaria for pandemic preparedness, which was adopted at the weekly government meeting on December 2.

"We have adopted Bulgaria's National Pandemic Preparedness Plan," Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said during a briefing at the Council of Ministers.

"It was prepared in implementation of a decision to update the National Plan of the Republic of Bulgaria for pandemic preparedness, adopted on October 22 by the 44th National Assembly. The drafting of the plan used guidelines of the World Health Organization and the European Center for Prevention and Disease Control, existing scientific knowledge in the field and accumulated practical experience in the country to deal with previous epidemics and pandemics," the minister explained.

Bulgaria's national plan for pandemic preparedness has a general character, Angelov said, explaining that such plans will be developed if the country faces other pandemics.

"The main objectives of the National Pandemic Preparedness Plan are: to reduce morbidity and reduce mortality from pandemic infection; to provide optimal treatment options for patients; to maintain the functioning of key public sectors and services such as health, security, transport; providing constant, reliable and up-to-date information to the public about the course of the pandemic and the measures taken, " he explained.

"This is a generic plan that covers all possible pandemics. If a specific agent appears, taking into account all its charactersittics, specific measures are taken and a plan is drawn up for each one separately, commented Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev, Chief State Health Inspector.

"The national plan is useful because it provides basic guidelines and points, starting with how to stop the epidemic process, how to reduce the number of people affected - morbidity and mortality, to provide vaccines as soon as possible, to ensure the normal functioning of the state and the key infrastructure of vital importance, the activity of important state agencies and a communication strategy, " Kunchev said.

"Messages to people and truthful information that reaches them in time are of key importance," he explained.

A National Vaccination Plan will be prepared by Thursday, which will be presented at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers.

"Today we appointed a chairman of the Coordination Council for the implementation of the National Plan for Coordination of Vaccines. We proposed Prof. Dr. Krassimir Gigov, Director General of the Bulgarian Red Cross and Chief Coordinator of the Expert Council for Emergency Medicine .to head this council," he added.

The first batch of Covid-19 vaccine arrives in Bulgaria by the New Year or early 2021.

Every Bulgarian citizen will have access to a vaccine. Bulgarians will have access to the same vaccines that will be available to all European citizens, said Prof. Angelov. He announced that an information campaign would be conducted so that people could get orientated and understand.

There is still a feeling that the vaccines will be imposed in some way. Vaccination will be voluntary. Every Bulgarian citizen who wants to be vaccinated will have this opportunity to do so. They will be absolutely free-of-charge," he said.

"It is the commitment of the coordination council and the Bulgarian government that every Bulgarian citizen who wants to be vaccinated against COVID-19 will receive the vaccine he/she wishes," Angelov stressed.

images by BGNES

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