site.btaBulgaria Second in EU for COVID-19 Mortality

December 10 (BTA) - Bulgaria is second in the EU for COVID-19 mortality, it transpired at the weekly briefing of the national coronavirus task force here on Thursday. National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Director and task force member Todor Kantardjiev said that Bulgaria's 14-day morbidity rate of 554 people per 100,000 population places the country ninth in the EU/EEA and third in the Balkans.

Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said that a decision on whether to reopen kindergartens next week will be taken after the data from the remaining days of this week are examined. The data available thus far do not support the adoption of such a decision, he added.

At present, 52 per cent of the hospital beds for non-complicated coronavirus cases and 42 per cent for intensive care are occupied. The percentage of hospital bed occupancy is very high in Yambol (92 per cent), Shoumen (85 per cent) as well as in Bourgas, Blagoevgrad, Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Sliven, and Razgrad, Angelov said.

He said he has tasked the National Centre for Public Health and Analyses to analyse the reasons for the increased mortality in the country.

The Health Minister also said that general practitioners will receive the 1,000 leva they were promised as an additional remuneration, and that a solution to the problem will be found by the end of the day at a sitting of the National Health Insurance Fund's Supervisory Board. The resources for those working at emergency medical care centres, regional health inspectorates and hospitals come from the EU, he noted.

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Bulgarian Drug Agency Executive Direction Bogdan Kirilov said that Bulgaria's joining the agreement between the European Commission and COVID-19 vaccine producers guarantees access to the agreed doses, which are close to 2 billion. There currently is no information about a delay in deliveries, but these are tied to the issue of usage authorizations, he explained.

Health Minister Angelov said that the creation of COVID-19 vaccines did not begin in March 2020, recalling the similar viral infection of 2003. In his words, it could be said that COVID-19 is a second version of the 2003 virus and the companies have been working on creating a vaccine to attack it. He described as untrue the claim that the COVID-19 vaccines have been created very quickly and harbour risks to people's lives and health.

RI/DS




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