Page 21 - Sofia Globe News Today

Bulgaria’s Health Minister Kostadin Angelov issued a series of orders on the night of January 26, governing changes to measures as the Covid-19 epidemic declaration in the country is extended to April 30. These include orders on the system for the return to in-person classes for school pupils in the fifth to 12 grades. From February 4 to 17, pupils in the seventh, eighth and 12th grades return to in-person classes. From February 18 to March 2, pupils in the fifth, 10th and 11th grades return ...

Bulgaria’s Ministry of Health posted on January 25 its projection of how many doses of vaccines against Covid-19 the country will receive by the end of 2021. The numbers do not include AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, which is pending approval by the European Commission. The vaccine is subject to a decision by the European Medicines Agency, pencilled in for January 29. By March 31, depending on the rate of production and delivery, Bulgaria expects to receive 255 255 BioNTech-Pfizer and 60 00...

Bulgaria may have one to two million people vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of summer 2021, according to Professor Todor Kantardzhiev, head of the National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases. “A low level of antibodies in your blood a few months after getting ill or vaccinated doesn’t mean you’re no longer safe,” Kantardzhiev, a member of the national operational headquarters against Covid-19, was reported as saying on January 22. Kantardzhev said that the coronavirus v...

Bulgaria’s Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said on January 7 that the country’s anti-epidemic measures were producing “extremely positive” data about the Covid-19 situation. Angelov told a briefing that there was an enduring trend that the number of people who had recovered from the virus was double the number of new patients. Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev said that Bulgaria continued to be third in mortality and 24th in morbidity in the European Union. However, he said th...

Fifty-nine people in Bulgaria who had tested positive for Covid-19 died in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s death toll linked to the disease to 7961, according to the January 7 report by the national information system. The report said that 1002 new cases had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, of which 659 were established by PCR tests and 343 by rapid antigen tests. A total of 10 088 tests were performed during the past 24 hours, 5541 of which were PCR tests and 4547 antigen tests...

A poll done by Alpha Research in December has found that fears of a worsening Covid-19 pandemic and a focus on measures to address the health and economic consequences pushed down the number of Bulgarians who said that they intended to vote in the coming parliamentary elections. The poll, one in a regular quarterly series by Alpha Research, was done between December 15 and 21 by interviewing 1017 adult citizens across all parts of Bulgaria. About 49.6 per cent of those polled in December said t...

Indignation erupted on social networks in Bulgaria on January 6 as, in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic, gatherings were held across the country for the Orthodox Church Epiphany ritual of pursuing a cross thrown by clergy into a river, lake or the sea. The rest of this article is exclusively available to supporters of The Sofia Globe’s Patreon page. If you have not yet become a patron, it costs three euro a month, or the equivalent in other currencies, to do so. Please click on the “Become a ...

Bulgaria’s economy was set to grow by 3.3 per cent this year after the estimated 5.1 per cent drop suffered in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 global pandemic, according to the latest World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report, released on January 6. The report also projected 3.7 per cent economic growth in 2022. Compared to the June 2020 report, the World Bank appeared to suggest that the post-Covid rebound would be steeper than it projected earlier, with this year’s growth forecast ...

Preparations are being made for the second phase of vaccination against Covid-19 in Bulgaria, involving 15 000 residents of old-age homes and 11 000 staff and social workers, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said on January 2. Speaking at a meeting between Prime Minister Boiko Borissov and members of the Cabinet, Angelov said that the second phase would begin after further supplies of vaccines arrive in Bulgaria. Municipalities are responsible for compiling the lists of people in these categori...

Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said on January 1 that the consolidated Budget deficit for the first 11 months of 2020 was 213.7 million leva, exceeding the ministry’s 183.2 million leva forecast issued in November. This was well below the 1.3 billion leva surplus recorded in the same period of 2019. For the full year 2020, the Finance Ministry projected the Budget balance to record a deficit of 3.6 billion leva, or three per cent of gross domestic product. The state Budget had a deficit of 255...