Covid-19: New restrictions come into force across the country from March 22

New restrictive measures against the spread of the coronavirus come into force across the country for a period of 10 days, the National Operational Headquarters said on March 18.

The measures will take effect from Monday - March 22. This was announced by the Minister of Health, Prof. Kostadin Angelov, at the beginning of the regular weekly briefing on the current epidemic situation and the introduced anti-epidemic measures in the country.

"In the past 2-3 weeks, the cases of Covid-19 patients admitted to medical institutions, as well as the positive test results, continue to rise. All this motivates us to take restrictive measures for the whole country, which will be introduced from Monday and will last for 10 days," he said.

• Visits to all catering and entertainment establishments are suspended, only deliveries or taking food for the home and office are allowed. Dining places in hotels should reorganize their work;
• Visits to casinos and gaming halls are suspended;
• Visits to all retail outlets offering non-food items with a net retail area of ​​over 300 square metres are suspended. Exceptions are allowed for food outlets, supermarket and hypermarket stores;
• Visits to shopping centres, representing one or more buildings in which shops, restaurants, etc. are located, are suspended. Mall-type shopping centres are also closing, with the exception of grocery stores, pharmacies, opticians, pet stores, banks, insurers, payment service providers, dry cleaner’s, telecommunications operators' offices, and other communication service providers;
  
  
• The holding of congress-conference events, seminars, competitions, trainings, team building, exhibitions and other public events is suspended;
• Visits to fitness centres and halls for group activities, as well as independent swimming complexes and swimming pools are suspended;
• All cultural and entertainment events are suspended: cinemas, museums, galleries, stage events, concerts, creative, dance and music classes;
• It is not allowed to organize and hold gatherings and celebrations of a private nature: weddings, baptisms with the presence of more than 15 people;
• All group and individual sports events of a training and competitive nature for all age groups indoors and outdoors are held without an audience;
• The carrying out of group tourist trips, excursions with organized transport and group visits to the tourist sites is suspended;
• It is forbidden to hold organized mass public events in the open air: celebrations, fairs, festivals, etc .;
• In all markets and bazaars, an organization is created for one-way traffic and a distance of at least 1.5 metres between visitors. Workers and visitors are required to wear a protective face mask covering the nose and mouth;
• In-person attendance classes at schools are suspended, including training practices, internships, outsourced classes, exams, dual system of training, etc. in schools and personal development support centres;
• In-person attendance of extracurricular activities and activities by interests, organized in school and extracurricular environment for all age groups is suspended;
• In-person learning process in universities is suspended. Exceptions are allowed for practical exercises in clinical disciplines, teaching practice, clinical internship, undergraduate internship and state exams of students in regulated medical professions in the professional fields of "Medicine", "Dental Medicine", "Pharmacy", "Health Care" and conducting state exams in all higher schools in strict compliance with the measures;
• In-person attendance of group classes in language centres, educational centres, training centres and schools etc. are suspended;
• In-person attendance to kindergartens and nurseries, as well as to children's centres, clubs, etc. are suspended.
• The Minister of Health specified that the measures will be written in an order, which will be issued by the end of the day.