site.btaBulgaria Sees Gradual Rise in COVID-19 Cases, Pays Lv 50 Mln More to Closed Businesses

Sofia, February 8 (BTA) - Bulgaria is seeing the start of a
gradual surge in COVID-19 incidence and hospitalizations. At the
 same time, vaccination is picking up and the payment of 1,000
leva a month to all front-line health workers is accelerating. A
 further 50 million leva have been transferred to the National
Revenue Agency for payments to the sectors closed due to the
pandemic, and all anti-crisis measures supporting businesses and
 people are being implemented. This emerged from reports by
Health Minister Kostadin Angelov, Economy Minister Lachezar
Borisov and representatives of the national coronavirus and
vaccination task forces at Monday's working meeting with Prime
Minister Boyko Borissov.

The Prime Minister said the epidemic control measures had been
targeted strictly at businesses where social distancing cannot
be maintained. He told the Health Minister: "At this point we do
 not need any more closures, on the contrary, children should
return to in-person classes in small settlements where 70 or 80
people attend school at the same time. Be flexible."

Borissov said broader vaccination could start now that vaccines
were being supplied regularly, while providing fuller coverage
to police officers, the military, teachers and theatre
employees, among others. As vaccination rollout and recoveries
increase, Bulgaria could emerge from the crisis in April, May or
 June, according to him.

Ventsislav Moutafchiiski, Chairman of the national coronavirus
task force, said hospitalized COVID-19 patients had increased by
 10 per cent in the past week and the 14-day incidence rate had
risen by about 40 per cent. The lowest incidence of new cases
was 80 per 100,000 population, while now it is 128 per 100,000.
The Chief State Health Inspector, Dr Angel Kunchev, said the
epidemic control measures were intended to keep new cases from
increasing too quickly. "The more people receive a vaccine, the
more limited the possible spread of the virus, and things will
start turning around sooner or later," said Kunchev.

Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said the pace of the second and
 third phases of vaccination would increase considerably from
Monday. "We expect parents to say if they would like their
children at school tested. The aim is to guarantee a safe
environment for in-person schooling," he said.

Prof Todor Kantardjiev, Director of the National Centre of
Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, said no cases of type A and B
 flu had been registered in Bulgaria yet due to the COVID-19
epidemic control measures and the prevalence of coronavirus.
Cases of the Latin American and South African variants have not
been reported in Bulgaria so far.

Bogdan Kirilov, Executive Director of the Executive Drug Agency,
 said vaccine deliveries were increasing considerably. More than
 160,000 doses are expected in the first week of March.

Economy Minister Lachezar Borisov reported that the government
was implementing the business support measures at a quick pace
and new measures were being considered. With the Finance
Ministry's approval, an additional 50 million leva were
transferred to the National Revenue Agency last week for
payments to the administratively closed sectors. "The government
 submitted a notification to the European Commission on Friday
about continuing this measure in February," he said.

Lachezar Borisov and the nationally represented employer
organizations have discussed the spending of a further 211
million leva from the REACT-EU (Recovery Assistance for Cohesion
 and the Territories of Europe) package on working capital and
investment support for businesses. "The first measure will be
launched within 10 days following decisions of the Monitoring
Committee and the Council of Ministers. We received a
notification from the European Commission for this measure back
in December," said the Economy Minister.

***

The delivery of 17,550 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to
Bulgaria, which was scheduled for Monday, has been delayed due
to bad weather, the Health Ministry reported. Given the harsh
weather conditions in Germany, it is unclear when the aircraft
carrying the vaccine can take off. RI/DD,VE