Record surge in Covid-19 infections and deaths, will we reach lockdown?

On October 26, Bulgaria reported a record spike in daily Covid-19 cases and deaths the beginning of the pandemic. The situation in hospitals is becoming extremely complicated as the hospitalised patients exceeded 7,000.

President Rumen Radev, who met with emergency medical professionals, said that a lockdown will be necessary when the intensive care Covid beds are fully occupied.

A record number of Covid deaths was registered for the past 24 hours – 243 people. More than 234 of them were unvaccinated.

Until now, December 1st of last year was the darkest day with 221 reported Covid-19 related deaths.

According to the statistics from the Single Coronavirus Information Portal, there are nearly 6,000 new Covid-19 infections for the past 24 hours, which is also a record for Bulgaria. The previous record surge in daily infections was reported on March 31st – 5,176 cases.

In the next few days, we may see another record in terms of active carriers as today the number is close to 83,000. The previous highest number, 95,000 active cases, was registered in December last year.

The situation in the capital Sofia is aslo getting complicated as the highest number of daily cases, 1,735, was reported today. In November last year, when the ambulances went around the hospitals and people had to wait for hours to be admitted, the highest number was 1,619.

The pressure on the hospitals is increasing, they are extremely busy and it becomes increasingly difficult to find unoccupied beds.

This morning, there was only one intensive care bed available in „Aleksandrovska“ hospital.

All six intensive care beds in the hospital in Lovech are occupied. The dofficulty to treat patients in serious conditions may neccesitate a lockdown.

"There are many hospitals where the sign says "no available beds". What will we do if there is depletion of these intensive care beds, leave the people to die? Is this what we have to do?” president Radev asked.

Dr. Koleva is a cardiologist but has been working in the Covid ward for over a year. She tells us how they put additional daybeds in the rooms so as not to send people back home. “Our ward and all the other ones are already full,” she added.

The number of registered cases for this month only is 75,000. This means that the number of people in need of hospital treatment is set to rise drastically. Even now the healthcare system looks overwhelmed.

“The current situation is extremely serious since the number of new cases is increasing rapidly, while the admission of new patients is exceptionally difficult and becomes a challenge both for us and for them.” Dr. Dafinka Koleva from a Covid ward in "St. Anna" hopsital in Sofia, says.

Six clinics in the Military Medical Academy are being converted into Covid wards, preparations for a new wave of patients and ward restructuring is also underway in "Tsaritsa Yoanna" hospital.

During the previous wave in April, a record number of 813 beds for intensive care were occupied. Now, only in one week, the number of occupied beds rose from 500 to 600 and the expectations are that the process will accelerate.

Close to 3,000 patients have been admitted to hospitals since Saturday.

The caretaker Minister of Health, Stoycho Katsarov, confirmed that there will be a national lockdown if the current measures are not observed.

According to him, we are already in a so-called lockdown with an opportunity for the business to operate with green certificates. Katsarov added that the overall situation in the country in monitored rarher than specific figures in terms of morbidity. The caretaker Health Minister declared that the situation with the hospital beds is critical.

It became clear earlier today that the Bulgarian Medical Association approached the Prosecutor‘s Office and the State Agency for National Security due to suspicions of violations in implementing certain laws by the Head of the National Health Fund.

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