Health Minister at news briefing on Covid-19: Talks on providing additional vaccines continue

health minister news briefing covid talks providing additional vaccines continue

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13:02, 25.03.2021

The third wave of Covid-19 infections is nothing like the second - whole families are sick, many women who had given birth recently and pregnant women are sick, many young people are in hospitals, the Minister of Health Prof. Kostadin Angelov said on March 25 at the beginning of the regular weekly briefing on the current epidemic situation in the country.

Hospitals continue to cope with the situation, he said. All medical institutions have been prepared, and where there is a shortage of beds, new structures are being opened. "Hospitals continue to cope with the situation, Bulgaria will deal with these third wave and we will get out of it successfully," the minister is optimistic.

"Medical professionals who have been vaccinated during the first phase do not get sick. This way, we ensured that during the third wave would not have a shortage of medical staff in medical institutions," the Minister of Health said.

Talks on providing additional vaccines for our country continue, he added.

"This became possible thanks to the efforts of the Bulgarian government and the Bulgarian Prime Minister, who together with 5 other countries: Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovenia wrote a letter requesting a fair redistribution of doses. We expect the expert talks to end today," he said, adding that a decision at the highest state level is expected tonight.

4,375 new cases of Covid -19 infection were reported for the last 24 hours from 17,120 tests, the data of the Unified Information Portal show. Thus, the total number of positive cases in the country since the beginning of the epidemic is 317,116. Of these, the active cases are 62,392.

9,125 Covid-19 patients are in hospital, 743 of them in serious condition. The number of recoveries is also growing – 24,2311, including 2,709 of them registered in the past 24 hours. The number of Covid-19 associated deaths increased by 106, bringing the total to 12,413.

Currently, 69% of the beds for non-emergency cases of the disease and 70% of the intensive care beds are occupied.

For the period of the past 14 days, the country is in 6th place in terms of morbidity in the European Union and 2nd in the Balkans. Malta, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are before us, with significant differences. In terms of mortality, Bulgaria is 4th in the EU and 1st in the Balkans. Before us are the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. This was announced by the Chief State Health Inspector Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev.

The most severely affected areas in the country are Bourgas, Silistra, Sofia, Vratsa and Pleven. The lowest prevalence of the infection is in the districts of Targovishte, Razgrad, Kardzhali, Vidin, Pazardzhik.

"If we allow gross non-compliance with the measures, the number of cases admitted to hospital and the deaths may increase twice. Although it is early to say, but there is a trend of keeping the numbers at this level, without further increase," Chief state Health inspector, Assoc. Prof. Kunchev, said.

For the last week, the increase in the number of infected 100,000 people is 23%, we have surpassed the peak from November 23, 2020, Head of the National Operational Headquarters (coronavirus task force), Major General Prof. Ventsislav Mutafchyiski said.

Minister of the Economy, Luchezar Borissov, announced a relaxation of the measures concerning large non-food stores, but under certain conditions.

The anti-epidemic measures that took effect on March 22 closed stores with net retail areas of more than 300 square metres. Such shops selling non-food products, may now re-open but must put restrictions on the space available to customers. This may be done by putting up partitions. tapes, stands so that customers do not have access outside the designated area, he said.