site.btaHealth Minister on AstraZeneca, J&J Vaccines

April 13 (BTA) - Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said
the European Medicines Agency was expected to announce later on
Tuesday its conclusions following a review of reports about
blood clots in people who had received the Johnson & Johnson
vaccine in the United States. The Health Minister voiced concern
 over reports that the US had called for a pause on the use of
that vaccine on Tuesday after discovering six cases of a rare
type of blood clot that developed about two weeks
post-vaccination.

Angelov also said that people who want to get their second shot
of the AstraZeneca vaccine can have it. The rest will be offered
 an alternative, most probably one of the mRNA vaccines. He
recalled, however, that there is no research into pairing doses
from two different COVID-19 vaccines.     
 
Bulgarian expert boards have until the end of the week to give
their opinion on the possibility of administering a second shot
with a different COVID vaccine. "There has been a certain
decrease in interest in the AstraZeneca vaccine but we are not
going to withdraw it," said Angelov.
 
A new batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived on Tuesday and
will be distributed.

The Health Minister attended the distribution of Remdesivir from
 the BB-NCIPD Ltd. warehouse to the regional health
inspectorates. He said: "Today's delivery will meet
requirements. There are 15,000 doses of the medication in the
warehouse, of which 8,000 were distributed on Tuesday."

Angelov declined to comment on reports that President Rumen
Radev's wife had been hospitalized, saying only he hoped that if
 that was the case, Desislava Radeva would get well.

Asked about Slavi Trifonov, leader of the There Is Such a People
 party, who is in COVID quarantine, Angelov said he hoped that
Trifonov would recover, as many Bulgarians have done already.

Trifonov, whose party was the runner-up in the April 4
elections, said he had COVID symptoms on election night, which
was later confirmed by a test. RI/DD