Dr. Branzalov: novel coronavirus cannot spread as easily as in 2020

Bulgaria already has the necessary quantities of vaccines. Logistics have been significantly improved and 100% of the orders are being fulfilled. "We would achieve herd immunity and practically eliminate the Covid-19 epidemic in Bulgaria, if we administer the available quantities of vaccines", the Deputy Chairman of the Bulgarian Medical Union Dr. Nikolay Branzalov said in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio. The Covid-19 epidemic is not over, Dr. Branzalov warned. "The latest data is encouraging and the number of Covid-19 patients is decreasing. In fact, the virus cannot spread as easily as one and a half years ago. A large part of the Bulgarian population is protected, but this is not enough", Nikolay Branzalov added.

British coronavirus strain with mutation typical for Brazilian one found in Bulgaria

Reading the genome of coronavirus isolated from a Bulgarian patient shows that the British variant has acquired a mutation characteristic of the Brazilian strain. This was what Prof. Todor Kantardzhiev, head of the National Center for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases has told "24 Chasa" newspaper. The patient was in the age group 80-90 years. He was seriously ill and passed away despite the efforts of medics. This type of virus mutation has been observed in 5 cases in the United States and another 5 in Europe. Prof. Kantardzhiev says that in order to limit the risks, it was necessary to take samples from vaccinated people who became ill 15 days after the second dose of the vaccine. The same should happen to people who become re-infected after an infection proven by a PCR test.

Bulgaria reports 361 new Covid-19 cases out of 11,061 tests

361 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Bulgaria for the past 24 hours out of 11,061 tests performed, data of the Single Coronavirus Information Portal show. 3.3% of the tests have returned positive result. The highest number of new infections was reported in Sofia-63, followed by Plovdiv district-27, Varna district-25 and Blagoevgrad district-24. There are 28,490 active cases of Covid-19 at present. 4,201 patients are being treated in hospital, 460 of them are in intensive care. 37 people have died and 2,317 have recovered in the past day. 30,349 vaccines have been administered in Bulgaria for a day, bringing the total number of inoculations against Covid-19 to 1,191,397. A total of 458,248 people have already received their second vaccine dose.

Compiled by: Vessela Krasteva

English: Radio Bulgaria English Service

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