At a regular briefing of the National Operational Headquarters, Bulgarian Minister of Health, Prof. Kostadin Angelov reported a lasting trend for a rise in the number of people who have recovered from coronavirus compared to that of the newly infected. This finding is confirmed by the fact that the pressure on the hospitals in the capital city has decreased significantly, according to the chairman of the headquarters Gen. Ventsislav Mutafchiyski. He gave as an example the Military Medical Academy, where the number of patients with severe respiratory problems has dropped by 40-50%.

General Ventsislav Mutafchiyski summarized his observations from the beginning of coronavirus vaccination, saying that from day one demand for vaccination has been high. He added that in the Military Medical Academy the 100 doses that were delivered were not enough for all medics who wanted to be vaccinated.

New 25,000 doses of vaccines will arrive in Bulgaria on January 4 or 5 by plane and will be transported to all regional health inspectorates, Chief Health Inspector Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev said.

The first phase of the vaccination, which covers doctors, is expected to be completed by the end of next month, and then vaccination of the elderly will start. However, this could happen in January if the European Medicines Agency approved the Moderna vaccine.

On January 4, children and students up to the 4th grade will return to kindergartens and schools,  Minister of Education Krassimir Valchev has confirmed.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, nearly 201,000 people have been infected with Covid-19 and nearly 8,000 people lost their lives. In terms of morbidity in the past two weeks, this country ranks 24th in the EU, while the number of those who lost the battle with the disease places Bulgaria third in the negative chart, Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev said. He added that if the positive trend of declining number of new cases was maintained for at least a week, it would be possible to think about easing the anti-epidemic measures.

Author: Diana Tsankova

English: Alexander Markov