Hospitals in seaside district of Bourgas increase Covid-19 beds

The hospitals in Bourgas are providing more beds for Covid-19 patients because of a rise in the number of cases in Bulgaria’s Southern Black Sea coast.

Since the beginning of last week, the district has moved from the Covid-19 green to the yellow zone. By order of the caretaker Minister of Health, medical institutions are beginning to prepare for a possible boom of the infected.

The growing number of infected is due to the large number of tourists who arrive in Bulgaria in the middle of summer. Although they enter our country with a vaccination certificate and a negative test, most of those hospitalized are foreign nationals.

Most of the positive samples in the area are of foreign tourists from Israel, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, who have entered Bulgaria with a vaccination certificate.

"In order to return at the end of the holiday, they have to present a PCR test result taken no more than 72 hours before depatrute flight. It turns out that for a small number of these foreign citizens, the PCR test result is positive and they must remain in the country for a 14-day quarantine,” Dr. Georgi Pazderov from Regional Health Inspectorate in Bourgas said.

"We have 25 beds at this stage, of which 17 are occupied. Some of the patients are Bulgarian tourists, but the majority are from abroad. We have from Obzor and from Sunny Beach, everywhere," Dr. Boyko Mirazchiiski, head of the Univesity Hospital in Bourgas explains.

It is not yet clear yet whether patients are infected with the Delta variant of the coronavirus. Against the background of growing morbidity, the beaches and accommodation on the Southern Black Sea coast are crowded. In Sunny Beach, hoteliers who managed to open this summer are reporting a strong season with a large influx of tourists, many from abroad. They say that the growing number of Covid-19 cases does not scare them.

"There are enough disinfectants, dividing lines, which show what distance people should keep," said hotelier Plamen Kopchev.

The hotels by the sea provide quarantine rooms, where tourists can remain in 14-day isolation in the event of infection.