News briefing on Covid-19: Measures are yielding results; only 3 districts in Bulgaria remain in the red zone

We continue to observe a downward trend in the spread of coronavirus in the country, Bulgaria’s Minister of Health, Kostadin Angelov, said on January 28 at the beginning of the regular briefing in connection with the current situation with the spread of COVID-19 in the country and the anti-epidemic measures. According to him, the existing measures are yielding results.

"The daily morbidity in Bulgaria has dropped to less than 100 infected per 100,000 people. For the last week the number of recoveries is 6,524 people and. 3,606 new cases were confirmed," said the health minister.

"Bulgaria continues to maintain extremely good levels of morbidity, which shows that we have managed the pandemic in the country well and achieve extremely good results, despite the acceptable and less stringent measures compared to the measures in other EU countries," said Prof. Angelov.

He noted that the mass testing of teachers and non-teaching staff in educational institutions began this week. "A total of 3,726 from the non-teaching staff and 12,232 teachers were tested. 26 people were with positive results, 11 of them being non-teaching staff ", the Minister reported.

Since the beginning of the week, the incidence in Bulgaria is 90 per 100,000 people. The country ranks 27th in Europe in terms of morbidity and 6th in the Balkans. In terms of mortality, Bulgaria is in 11th place in the EU, said the chief state health inspector, Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev. Currently, the lowest incidence in the country is in Targovishte, and the highest in Kyustendil, he added.

"The picture in the country has changed significantly. From all red, now only three districts - Vratsa, Kyustendil and Pleven, now remain in the red zone. 19 districts in the orange zone, and for the first time 6 districts - Veliko Turnovo, Gabrovo, Montana, Razgrad, Smolyan and Targovishte are in the yellow zone. The morbidity is lowest in Targovishte and highest in Kyustendil, " he added.

"The map of Europe by morbidity is all in red with four exceptions - Bulgaria, Greece, Norway and Finland, as well as Iceland, which is not in the EU, but is included in the statistics. There are three exceptions in dark red - Ireland, Portugal and the Czech Republic, where the morbidity rate is over 1,000 infected per 100,000 people," said Assoc. Prof. Kunchev.

We support the order of the Minister of Health with the outlined methods for easing the measures, said the Head of the coronavirus task force, Major General Ventsislav Mutafchyiski.

"We have never claimed that all places of conflict can be stopped for a visit. The society cannot function without having places to buy food and basic necessities," Mutafchyiski commented.

"We’ve identified the places of high risk of the spread of infection - nurseries, kindergartens, schools, malls, bars, restaurants. At the moment, the hospitals are not full of COVID patients, but of patients whose scheduled operations were postponed," he said.

If the European Commission approves the vaccines of all companies, Bulgaria could receive up to 18 million doses, said the chairman of the Medicines Agency, Bogdan Kirilov. He stressed that today or tomorrow the EC is expected to come up with a decision on the Oxford vaccine. "By June, it would be possible to vaccinate 1 million people with the two approved vaccines. If the Oxford vaccine is approved, 2 million will be vaccinated. If the fourth vaccine is authorized - 2.4 million people will be able to be vaccinated, if the fifth is authorized, more than 2.5 million people will be vaccinated," Kirilov estimated.

"This tiny virus has brought our values in life to the fore. On one hand, the measures are working and we must all be happy with it. On the other hand, people are starting to become dissatisfied, they are running out of patience, they want their lives back. We all want our normal life back. But in order to return to this life, we must return healthy," the minister said.

If the number of patients increases in the first 14 days after the easing of the measures, the closure will start from the last opened sectors, the Minister of Health was firm.

images by Dessislava Kulelieva

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