Bulgaria’s Health Minister and Task Force propose the stricter measures against Covid-19 to continue until January 31

The current anti-epidemic measures, introduced on November 27, 2020 and scheduled to end on December 21, should continue to be in effect until January 31, 2021, with exceptions to be made for school students from 1st to 4th grade, kindergartens and dining places at hotels.

This was proposed by the Minister of Health Kostadin Angelov and the members of the national task force against coronavirus at a working meeting with the Prime Minister Boyko Borissov on December 16. Last week, the Prime Minister asked the task force to prepare a report on the effectiveness of the anti-epidemic measures and an expert opinion on their action, given the current situation with COVID-19.

"The public expects in the coming days to be informed in a timely manner what we intend to do on the basis of medical expert opinion - according to the number of infected, rcovered, etc.," said Prime Minister Borissov at the beginning of the meeting.

The Minister of Health reported that in one week the number of Bulgarians recovered from the virus was 18,907.

"The other positive result of the introduction of the measures is that the morbidity in the country has dropped and is now below 600 per 100,000 people. We do not have any region where there is more than 1,000 infected per 100,000 people," said Minister Angelov.

Despite these trends, however, Bulgaria retains its place in terms of morbidity in the EU, continues to be in 10th and 11th place, and in terms of mortality, it is in first place.

In this context, and after a series of meetings with professional organizations and competent structures, the Minister of Health proposed to the Prime Minister that all prescribed measures, which are due to end on 21 December 2020, should continue to apply until 31 January 2021, with the exception of the following:

- pupils from 1st to 4th grade start attending school from January 4, 2021, and kindergartens and nurseries re-open;

- from 1 January to open galleries, museums, cinemas and theatres, working at a capacity of 30% and with a space of one seat apart;

- allowing the dining places in the hotels to be able to work with up to 50% occupancy only for guests of the hotels with closing time at 10 pm.

The Minister of Health stressed that due to the workload of the healthcare system, it is unthinkable to talk about greater easing of restrictions in the country.

The Prime Minister pointed out that the extension of the measures until January 31, 2021 requires the state to provide further BGN 250 million to compensate for the temporarily closed businesses or those working with limited activity.

"We have to go through these days. The pandemic is unpredictable, so - as much as we can, we protect ourselves with discipline, distance, disinfection, " said Prime Minister Borissov. He demanded that strict monitoring of the implementation of anti-epidemic measures be applied on a daily basis, and that sanctions be imposed on those who break the rules.

"The proposal to extend the measures is very balanced, so we will strengthen the fragile trend of reducing the incidence of COVID-19, and after the holidays we will discuss the possibility to further ease the measures," Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev said.

The head of the coronavirus task force and head of the Military Medical Academy Ventsislav Mutafchiyski added that given the morbidity at the moment, there can be no greater relaxation of restrictions.

Details with final clarification of the proposals for the measures and the respective deadlines will be announced tomorrow at the regular briefing of the Minister of Health and the representatives of the task force.

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