Page 26 - Sofia Globe News Today

The Bulgarian mountain resort of Bansko opened its 2020/21 ski season on December 17, with fine conditions but few people as the Covid-19 crisis continues to bite Bulgaria’s recreation industry. The opening coincided with a government announcement that stricter measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 were being extended to the end of January, leaving restaurants closed but allowing eating places at hotels to be open, solely to serve guests and then subject to capacity rules and a 10pm mand...

Most of the stricter measures that came into effect on November 27 to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Bulgaria will remain in effect until January 31 instead of expiring on December 21, it was announced at a briefing at the Cabinet office. Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said that nightclubs, gaming halls, casinos, restaurants and sports halls will remain closed until January 31. Shopping malls will remain closed, except for the banks, payment services, pharmacies and food shops in them. Kin...

About 23.2 per cent of Bulgarians polled by the Exacta Research Group said that they intended getting vaccinated against Covid-19, while 41.9 per cent said that they did not intend doing so. According to the poll, the results of which were published on December 17, about 35.7 per cent were hesitant about being vaccinated and wanted more information before making a decision. The poll found that 76.9 per cent supported by the heightened measures put in place by Bulgaria’s government on November...

The European Commission said that it had on December 17 concluded exploratory talks with the pharmaceutical company Novavax with a view to purchasing its potential vaccine against Covid-19. The envisaged contract with Novavax would provide for the possibility for all EU member states to purchase 100 million doses, and they could further purchase up to 100 million more doses, the Commission said. It said that the December 17 finalisation of the exploratory talks with Novavax come in addition to ...

On arrival, they will have to declare where they will spend the quarantine. The 10-day quarantine may be lifted, no earlier than the fifth day, if producing a negative result for Covid-19 through a PCR or antigen test. Some exceptions are provided for, subject to providing results of PCR tests done no more than 72 hours before arrival, including humanitarian workers, people accompanying people travelling for medical reasons, and non-EU nationals that are holders of Austrian identity documents. ...

Bulgaria’s Sofia University has dismissed controversial professor Mihail Mirchev as a visiting lecturer after a series of lectures he gave led to allegations of insults and hate speech on racial and ethnic grounds. In a lengthy statement, Sofia University said that following the complaint by the student society, it had received numerous letters in support of the call for Mirchev’s dismissal, as well as letters in his defence, the latter denying that the lectures contained hate speech, discr...

As of December 14, travellers entering the United Kingdom from Bulgaria, both UK nationals and foreign citizens, are expected to undergo a period of 10-day self-isolation (previously 14 days), unless they fall into one of the exempt categories, the British embassy in Sofia said. As of December 15, passengers arriving in England from Bulgaria and other countries outside those designated as “travel corridors” will have the option of paying to take a private Covid-19 test after five days of se...

The head of Bulgaria’s National Statistical Institute, Sergey Tsvetarski, has told a parliamentary committee that the institute wants a delay to the start of the national census, currently scheduled for January 2021, Bulgarian National Radio reported on December 16. Tsvetarski cited the danger to the health of the public and that of census enumerators because of Covid-19, the report said. Bulgaria’s national 2021 census is part of an EU-wide exercise scheduled for next year. A postponement ...

Bulgaria’s anti-epidemic measures against the spread of Covid-19, that came into effect on November 27 and currently are due to expire on December 21, should continue until the end of January, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov and the national operational HQ against new coronavirus have proposed. The proposal was put forward on December 16 when Angelov and the national operational HQ held a meeting with Prime Minister Boiko Borissov. An announcement about a decision about the measures is expec...

Since Bulgaria’s tighter restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19 came into effect just less than three weeks ago, 2667 people who had tested positive for the disease have died, according to figures in the national information system daily report on December 17. The country’s death toll linked to the disease is now 6196, having risen by 191 in the past 24 hours. There are 89 540 active cases, an increase of 1316 compared with the figure in the report on the morning of November 27, sev...