site.btaPresident Holds Working Meeting with Government Ministers on Likely COVID Surge

August 6 (BTA) - President Rumen Radev held a working
meeting with several members of the caretaker government to
discuss the COVID situation and a possible new wave in
infections. He commended caretaker Health Minister Stoycho
Katsarov for his hard work and slammed the previous government
for a chaotic and inadequate approach to the pandemic.

Prime Minister Stefan Yanev, the Health Minister, Finance
Minister Assen Vassilev and Labour and Social Policy Minister
Gulub Donev presented reports on various aspects of the COVID
crisis. 

The President said that it is important to have measures clearly
 planned as the experts are warning of a looming new wave of
infections.

He also said that the meeting is not to discuss and decide on a
new lockdown but to give the public information "because
Bulgarian people have a right to know how the government is
managing the crisis and what measures are planned".

Bulgaria was third in the EU and eighth in the world in terms of
 COVID mortality, Radev recalled.

Prime Minister Yanev said that the government is managing
multiple crisis, referring also to the wildfire season in
Bulgaria and its neighbours.

He argued that it is important to have flexible measures for
businesses and the administration in a possible fourth wave in
Bulgaria, and these should be set out in the pandemic management
 plan. "We should think twice when we lock down businesses
because some may not reopen after that," he said.

Health Minister Katsarov said that a budget revision should be
approved as a matter of emergency by Parliament because the
available funding for front-line workers and for the needs of
the health system in a possible fourth wave, has been used up.
The budget of the National Health Insurance Fund also needs to
be revised because it is playing a key role in the processes.

The caretaker government has already drafted revisions of both
budgets and put them forward for parliamentary approval.

Katsarov said he would be happy to see Parliament adopt as its
own the pandemic management plan so that it is more than the
Health Ministry plan and be embraced by all political parties to
 ensure political commitment.

The Minister said that Bulgaria has enough protective clothing
and disinfectants at this stage.

Statistical trends show that within 10 days Bulgaria will be in
the orange zone for COVID which means more than 100 infected in
100,000 population on a 14-day basis. All necessary measures for
 that have been planned for the health system as well as a
standard safety protocol, Katsarov said.

He said that it is hard to change the low level of vaccinations
in Bulgaria, which he blamed on "a catastrophic start of the
vaccination campaign" and contradictory messages which provided
breeding ground for vaccine hesitancy that is so hard to change
now.

"One satisfactory thing is that close to 70 per cent of the
medics have had their jab and another is the relatively high
share of vaccinated older people," Katsarov added. 

He added that older people, unfortuinately, was not a priority
group for vaccination in January and February, and that cost
10,000 lives.

Tourism Minister Stela Baltova said that tourism is getting back
 to life and the ongoing season is "normal" with the numbers of
foreign visitors reaching last year's levels. She called for
predictability in the anti-COVID measures and especially the
closing of businesses "because tourism involves hefty investment
 and also valuable human capital may be lost".

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