Ruling government and opposition in self-isolation after yesterday’s CCNS meeting with the President

Power is in self-isolation. After it took more than 6 hours yesterday for the participants in the Consultative Council on National Security (CCNS) to announce that Bulgaria's position on Republic of North Macedonia remains unchanged - it turned out that there is another result of the meeting - a positive test for Covid-19 of the Speaker of Parliament, Nikola Minchev.

At least 17 people attended the in-person meeting of CCNS last night (January 10). The presidency refused to name the exact number, but assured that all anti-epidemic measures had been observed during the meeting.

After the Speaker of Parliament tested positive for Covid-19 last night, this morning first the President, then the Prime Minister, then other participants in the meeting announced that they were self-isolating. At the moment, despite our numerous inquiries, there is still no official information from the health authorities that the contacts of the Speaker of the Parliament have been quarantined.

In addition to the participants in the CCNS meeting, there are people from the administration, according to the director of the Sofia Regional Health Inspectorate, Dancho Penchev. Earlier, they explained that RHI employees are in contact with them and collect information.

Today, January 11, the Minister of Health issued an Order which shortens the period of isolation and quarantine. Under the new rules set out in the Order, the Speaker of Parliament should be quarantined until January 19, and his contacts for 3 days less. Today, the self-isolated officials continued to perform their duties, but remotely, assuring that the quarantine would not adversely affect their work.

More than 5 and a half hours. That's how long the participants in last night's CCNS meeting spent together. The result after its end - unchanged position on the Republic of North Macedonia, a positive test for Covid-19, quarantine and self-isolation.

Two hours after the end of the council, it became clear that the Speaker of the National Assembly Nikola Minchev felt unwell and after a test, he was diagnosed with coronavirus. Photos and footage from yesterday's council show that Minchev is wearing a mask all the time.

All the people who took part in this meeeting have already self-isolated and we have data on them. We are currently checking the immune status, so depending on the immune status of each of them, whether there is a booster or not – they will be placed under a different quarantine period, said Angel Kunchev, chief state health inspector.

Hours after the news of Minchev's positive test, most of the council members self-isolated. President Rumen Radev and representatives of his team, who were part of the meeting, said they had self-isolated.. The presidency added that everyone is in good health and measures have been taken for the normal functioning of the presidential institution.

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and his chief of staff Lena Borislavova are also in isolation. The Prime Minister continues his work remotely and is in constant contact with the members of the Council of Ministers. He will be substituted by Deputy Prime Minister Kalina Konstantinova for in-person events in the country.

Finance Minister Assen Vassilev is also among the self-isolated. He announced that he would work remotely on next year's budget.

Earlier today, it became clear that Defence Minister Stefan Yanev, who has also self-isolated, has a negative PCR test result, was feeling well and had no symptoms.

Minister of Interior Boyko Rashkov is also in self-isolation.

Desislava Atanasova, the chairwoman of GERB's PG, also announced that she was self-isolating with an angry post on Facebook against the Speaker of Parliament. According to her, it was right for Minchev to inform the participants in the council that he was not feeling well and that he was possible to be infected. Atanasova added that due to his reckless behaviour, the state will be run on autopilot.

"I consider the behaviour of Mr. Minchev, who was in the same hall with each of us for over six hours and did not inform us that he is not feeling well and that he is likely to have been infected with COVID-19 from the chairman of the PG of “We Continue the Change” party, for whom Mr. Minchev announced that he was with COVID-19 and therefore was not going to attend the CCNS meeting (..) In practice, due to his reckless behaviour, the state will be run on autopilot . (..) If we believe in science, Minchev probably had symptoms and had to take measures before the meeting."

In the BNT programme "More from the Day", the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Christian Vigenin, stated that he was not under quarantine, as he had been ill with COVID-19 less than 3 months before his participation in the meeting yesterday.

Quarantine is not a voluntary act, but a decision of an authority. The decision of the RHI is that I should not go into quarantine, for these reasons, and as you can see from the actions of the government today, the rules apply to everyone. The rules for all citizens are the same for the people who were in the CCNS meeting.

It also became clear that Vigenin will temporarily stand for Nikola Minchev as Speaker of Parliament.

Covid-19: Bulgaria’s health authorities shorten isolation and quarantine period

According to an Order of the Minister of Health, the quarantine and isolation period has been shortened as of today - the infected will be isolated for 10 days, from the date of the positive test and the contacts will be in quarantine for 7 days. In the case of a booster dose and a negative PCR test 72 hours after the quarantine date, the quarantine for the contact may be lifted.

In both non-European and European countries, the isolation period for people who have a booster dose is shorter, in some countries there is no quarantine for such people, said Asena Serbezova, Minister of Health.

The rules and laws in Bulgaria apply to everyone. Currently, the teams, the epidemiologists of Sofia Regional Health Inspectorate are contacting the persons who participated in this council and the measures to be applied will be the same, said Dancho Penchev, director of the RHI.

But given the delay in quarantining by Sofia’s RHI due to the huge number, I think they will quarantined under the latest shortened periods, said Angel Kunchev, chief state health inspector.

BSP Leader Kornelia Ninova said that the quarantine of the participants from the CCNS will not hinder the work of the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly.

According to the order of the Minister of Health on the new shortened periods of quarantine and isolations, the quarantine of the contacts of the Speaker of the National Assembly will last until January 16, inclusive.

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