There is no recommendation to take AstraZenava off the vaccination plan: Bulgarian Drug Agency director

“At this stage there is no indication that vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine should be stopped,” said Bogdan Kirilov, Director of the Bulgarian Drug Agency in an interview for bTV.
“The evaluation of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) shows that the risk-benefit ratio is positive, that is why the recommendation is to continue administering the vaccine in compliance with the decision for its use,” he added. “Next week the agency is expected to deliver an opinion based on the additional analysis of safety data.”
There is no categorical recommendation at this point regarding the second dose of the vaccine even though some countries are now considering replacing it with an mRNA vaccine.
Bogdan Kirilov stated that the Oxford vaccine is the only vaccine in which interest has diminished, but that in the past few days 500-600 people a day have been taking the vaccine.  

Vaccination in Bulgaria is going ahead at half the speed compared to other countries: Dr. Alexander Simidchiev

“The number of people diagnosed with Covid-19 is higher and the problem is not solved,” Dr. Alexander Simidchiev, newly elected chair of the parliamentary healthcare committee said for BNT.
In his words vaccination in Bulgaria is going ahead at half the speed compared to other countries. “Vaccines are the only sustainable solution to the problem,” he said and added that the high-risk groups must be inoculated.
Dr. Simidchiev stated further that it made no sense to dissolve the National Operational Headquarters and that there should be more messages targeted at specific groups – how senior citizens should protect themselves from coronavirus, how young people should protect them.

More than 15,000 Covid-19 deaths since start of pandemic

2,126 is the number of newly registered coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours out of 15,638 tests performed, the positivity rate is14%, Single Coronavirus Information Portal data show.
The highest number of new infections is in Sofia - 522, in Plovdiv – 194, in Varna – 166 and in Stara Zagora – 157.
9,195 patients are being treated in hospital, 801 of them in ICU. 121 coronavirus patients have died in the past day, bringing the Covid-19 death toll to over 15,000. The number of daily recoveries is 3,642. The number of active cases is 65, 754.
13, 755 doses of coronavirus vaccine have been administered in the past 24 hours, bringing the number of vaccinations to 634,129. The number of people who have received a second dose of Covid-19 vaccine is 126,884.

Greece relaxes restrictions for entry into the country

As of Monday Greece is relaxing the severe restrictions for entry into the country, valid for 32 countries, Bulgaria included. The 7-day quarantine will no longer apply to persons who have been vaccinated against coronavirus and to persons with a negative PCR test. 

Quarantine waived for arrivals in Slovakia who have been vaccinated or have recovered from coronavirus

As of Monday, Slovakia is removing quarantine for arrivals from the EU countries if they are vaccinated against Covid-19 or can show evidence of recovery from coronavirus. To prove they have been inoculated they will have to show a vaccination certificate. The same measure will apply to arrivals from Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Great Britain.  All arrivals who have not been vaccinated and have not recovered from the virus are subject to 14-day quarantine.

Compiled by Diana Tsankova

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