Mathematician Prof. Nikolay Vitanov says third wave of pandemic is fading

The third wave of the pandemic is under control and is receding. The basic reproduction number of infection has reached a record low at 0.595. There is a very marked tendency of a shrinkage of the infection. The number of active cases is expected to drop below 35, 000 with a tendency towards going down to 30,000, mathematician Prof. Nikolay Vitanov writes on Facebook. Prof. Vitanov was a member of the National Coronavirus Operational Headquarters as a representative of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The tendency of a drop in the number of new cases down to less than 500 new infections a day, with a tendency towards 100 a day is very strong, Prof. Vitanov writes and adds that the number of deaths connected with coronavirus have also gone down with a tendency towards dropping below 50 a day.

Caretaker government to keep pension bonuses during pandemic

Gulub Donev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Policy said that the pension bonuses of 25 euros would be paid out until the end of the term of office of the caretaker government. It is not clear whether there would be enough money to extend the 60/40 and 80/20 job-protection measures after May. “I am asking you to give us 7-10 days to run through the scenarios for support to the economy. The truth is that unless businesses started functioning there would not be any money for anything,” Minister of Finance Assen Vassilev said.

Measures need to be reviewed, but virus is still here

Over the next two months, several urgent measures need to be taken by the caretaker Minister of Health. They are mostly related to the still uncontrolled pandemic of Covid-19 in Bulgaria.There is a problem with the order of administration of coronavirus vaccines. In addition, vaccines do not fully reach the most endangered - chronically ill patients and the elderly, "explained in an interview with BNR Dr. Stanimir Hasardzhiev of the National Patients Organization.

Bulgaria reports 657 new cases of Covid-19 out of 11,106 tests

657 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Bulgaria in the past 24 hours out of 11,106 tests performed, data of the Single Coronavirus Information Portal show. 5.9% of the tests have returned positive result. The highest number of new infections was reported in Sofia-151, followed by Plovdiv-64, Varna-55 and Blagoevgrad-44. There are 38,515 active cases of Covid-19 at present. 5,250 people are being treated in hospital, 526 of them are in intensive care. 3,530 people have recovered in the past 24 hours and 46 people have died, bringing the Covid-19 death toll to 17,150. A total of 36,477 vaccines have been administered in this country in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of inoculations against Covid-19 to 1,035,763. A total of 362,322 people have already received their second vaccine dose.

Eurofound: Bulgarians are first in EU chart of citizens refusing vaccination

Bulgaria is among the EU countries with the lowest confidence in its national government when it comes to coping with the pandemic. With 2.7 points (out of 10 possible) Bulgaria ranks among Poland (2.1), Croatia (2.5) and the Czech Republic (2.9). This is seen in a study by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), called "Life, Work and Covid-19", quoted by BGNES. Bulgaria is the country in the EU where people are most reluctant to get vaccinated, the study also shows. 61% of polled Bulgarians say that they would probably not get vaccinated. 33% of Bulgarians show firm support for vaccination.

Editor: Yoan Kolev

English: Radio Bulgaria Enlish Service

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