Cabinet presented new operational plan for dealing with the Covid-19 crisis

The Council of Ministers on January 13 presented a National Operational Plan for Dealing with COVID-19.

"We will present a new model for dealing with the Covid crisis, Omicron is coming to Bulgaria with great speed. So far the models and measures were slightly unclear and not fully implemented, we decided to change this approach, we explored all factors on which the health system depends," said Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, who participated online.

According to him, the most critical factor for the health system is the occupancy of intensive care beds, they will be analyzed by district.

"The measures will be determined by the intensive care beds occupied. There will be no lockdowns," Kiril Petkov added.

The country's 28 districts will be divided into 6 clusters. The map will be presented every day, which will show what the situation is and what is ahead as a forecast in the next 5 days, in order for each family or business to be supported by this forecast.

Cluster 1 - Vidin, Montana, Vratsa
Cluster 2 - Pleven, Lovech, Gabrovo, Veliko Turnovo, Rousse
Cluster 3 - Silistra, Razgrad, Targovishte, Shumen, Varna, Dobrich
Cluster 4 - Sofia-city, Sofia-district, Pernik, Kyustendil, Blagoevgrad
Cluster 5- Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Smolyan, Kardzhali, Haskovo
Cluster 6 - Sliven, Yambol, B0urgas

The actions will be in 4 stages.

"Children are a priority. Education is valuable when it is in the form of in-person school attendance. In-person classes for pupils from first to fourth grade are a priority. Stage one - 50 percent of all intensive care beds in a certain cluster are occupied, the measures at such a stage will be little..The second stage will be when there is 60 percent occupation of intensive care beds. Then there will be measures, but all businesses will be working, as well as all schools. Stage three will be the stage at which there is dangerously high occupancy of intensive care beds, at 70 percent," added Kiril Petkov.

According to him, stage 4 would be the most critical, with 80 percent of intensive care beds occupied, then symmetrical closures of businesses would take place, grocery stores and pharmacies will be opened.

PM Kiril Petkov added that the idea is that where there are areas with less intensive beds to merge into areas with more, which reduces the risk of closing areas with less intensive beds.

"Only in the North Central Cluster we are in danger of entering stage 4, the others are in stage 1," he added.

He presented 10 measures to support business.

Measure 10 is brand new, "Stage 4", it is for completely closed micro, small and medium sized enterprises, where there will be a 20 percent grant, the prime minister announced.

We have been in an epidemic emergency situation for two years and we are constantly facing the challenges posed by the Covid pandemic, said the Minister of Health Prof. Asena Serbezova.

When the Ministry of Health takes anti-epidemic measures, their effect on other aspects of public life should be monitored and taken in a way that prevents the spread of Covid, but also to enable the industries to prepare.

This operational plan takes into account the characteristics of the new variation Omicron, it is expected that the health system will be overwhelmed.

"The main thing is that the data we have at the national level should be distributed on a regional basis, to those clusters mentioned by the Prime Minister. We should have at least three to five days for announcement of measures. This will not always be possible, but we hope this should be the most frequent case of announcing the measures and that is why this model is based on mathematical modelling", said the Minister of Health.

In the past two years, we have seen not only the shortcomings of online learning, but we will also see the long-term consequences on the educational process, said the Minister of Health.

EDUCATION

The new approach to the education system is mainly in its prioritization over other areas, taking into account the severe consequences that we can already see in relation to what happened in the past calendar year, said Education Minister Nikolay Denkov.

According to him, the education system faces two major problems:

• the widening of differences in parental opinion over whether classes should be in-person or online;
• The loss of motivation of some students to return to in-person attendance classes.

These are the arguments I presented during the meeting of the Council of Ministers, asking this time to take a different approach and the closure of schools to take place where the main concern is the health of students and teachers, Denkov explained.

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov opened the event via video conference. The press conference was attended by the Minister of Health Asena Serbezova and the Minister of Education and Science Nikolay Denkov.

At an operational meeting yesterday, ministers discussed a National Operational Plan to address COVID-19. The main criterion in it for the first time will be the percentage of intensive care beds in hospitals. It is this percentage that will determine what restrictive measures will be introduced.

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