site.btaCritical Infrastructure Staff Get AstraZeneca Vaccines in National Plan Phase 3

Sofia, February 7 (BTA) - Bulgaria's national COVID-19
vaccination plan on Sunday went into its third phase, which
covers critical public infrastructure employees, including staff
 of the BB-NCIPD Ltd. company who receive, store and distribute
the vaccines. Bulgarian Drug Agency (BDA) Executive Director
Bogdan Kirilov said that members of the election commissions
will be included in the vaccination drive as well, with doses
available for all of them wishing to be inoculated so as to
ensure safe balloting at the April 4 parliamentary elections.

The first 28,800 doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca
vaccine against COVID-19 arrived in Bulgaria on Saturday
evening.

Kirilov told a news briefing immediately after delivery was
taken that three more shipments of the same vaccine are expected
 in February, with the total adding up to 260,000 doses. The BDA
 head noted that the distribution of the vaccines will start
next week, and the National Vaccination Task Force will meet on
Monday to discuss the launch of the vaccination using the
AstraZeneca product. He explained that the second dose of this
vaccine can be administers between 4 and 12 weeks after the
first one, which is why an option will be explored to use all
doses available instead of reserving half for the second
inoculation.

Asked about fears that the AstraZeneca vaccine may not be
suitable for all age groups, Kirilov said that the issue is
still being discussed in the EU and more categorical
instructions will be issued next week on the basis of an
analysis of the information from the EU and the UK, where the
vaccine started to be administered earlier, data have built up,
and there are no restrictions.

The Chair of the National Vaccination Task Force, Prof. Krasimir
 Gigov, told the same news briefing that AstraZeneca's is
probably the vaccine that will be used on the largest scale in
Bulgaria. He said that very good conditions have been created
for its administration, storage and use.

The Bulgarian Health Ministry said on Sunday that 17,550 doses
of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 will arrive in
Sofia on Monday. NV/LG