site.btaHealth Minister: COVID-Related Restrictions Should Not Be Eased after December 21

December 14 (BTA) - Health Minister Kostadin Angelov will insist
 that the restrictions prompted by the spread of COVID-19 should
 not be eased after December 21. Angelov spoke to journalists on
 Monday after checking the availability of COVID-19 antigen test
 kits and personal protective equipment for medical staff at the
 central warehouse of the Bulgarian Red Cross.

Angelov said: "It is still too early to talk about easing the
restrictions after December 21. My opinion as a physician and a
government minister is that nighttime drinking and entertainment
 establishments should remain closed. It would be too early to
re-open schools and kindergartens on December 21; they can be
re-opened after New Year's Day."

Noting that the highest safety level should be provided to the
people, Angelov said that 150 lives lost per day "is not good."
"I will insist that the anti-epidemic measures remain unchanged
after December 21," he added.

According to the Health Minister, there are enough antigen test
kits to test all patients who have complaints. In a few days
specialists are expected to determine whether a positive antigen
 test result plus a clinically compatible case are as reliable
as a PCR test result. If so, the patient and his/her contacts
will be placed in isolation. Personal physicians will be
authorized to perform antigen tests or to give recommendations
about who can carry out such tests.

There will certainly be enough personal protective equipment for
 all hospitals, diagnosis and consultation centres which have a
COVID-19 zone, and emergency medical care centres, Angelov said.

"I would like to be the first to be vaccinated, although I am
not a frontline doctor, just to show the people that vaccination
 is efficient and safe," he said.

Later in the day, Minister Angelov met with the director of the
Bourgas Regional Health Inspectorate, Georgi Pazderov. Pazderov
said that of all doctors, nurses, pharmacists and dentists, 33
per cent agreed to be vaccinated against COVID-19. He noted that
 a total of 37 thousand registered in the prepared lists of
applicants. A total of 7,766 people have registered in Sofia,
which is 33.18 per cent, he said. Pazderov predicts that the
number of people willing to be vaccinated will increase after
the short description of the vaccine is released.

Vaccination will be carried out in medical institutions, but a
roadmap for each district is to be drawn up, Pazderov added.
Mobile teams will vaccinate pharmacists, dentists, and general
practitioners outside diagnostic centres, he said. He explained
that there will be a total of 47 mobile teams, with seven
already formed.

***

Later, the Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association sent a
letter to Prime Minister Boyko Borissov with a copy to Deputy
Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism Mariyana Nikolova,
expressing their concern over Health Minister Angelov's
statement that the measures will not be loosened after December
21, and hotel bars and restaurants will remain closed. "Three
weeks ago when the new restrictions were announced, Economy
Minister Lachezar Borisov made a public commitment to the
business that everything will reopen, albeit under strict
antiepidemic measures, after the three-week period," the letter
reads.

If the measures are not lifted on December 21, the Association
insists that a compensation scheme should be urgently put in
place for hotel and restaurant owners to avoid mass bankruptcy.
The letter also reads: "the financial support from the State for
 hotel and restaurant owners is now vital, it must amount to at
least 30 per cent of last year's turnover for the period of
closure; for new businesses, the support should be equal to at
least 30 per cent of the turnover from the last period the
business was open."
  
RY,NV/VE,MT