Foreign medical student in Bulgaria’s Plovdiv held after spreading fake Covid-19 claim

A foreign student, reported to be a UK citizen, has been arrested for spreading a false allegation that more than 200 students at the Medical University in Bulgaria’s city of Plovdiv had tested positive for Covid-19 but that the university’s management were deliberately concealing this.

The university’s management has rejected the allegation, posted by the 22-year-old student on a social network, as completely unfounded.

This was among a number of developments related to Covid-19 on the morning of March 16, as Bulgaria’s crisis staff confirmed that there were a total of 52 confirmed cases in the country, the latest a nine-year-old British child who had been on a skiing holiday in Bansko.

On March 17, public broadcaster Bulgarian National Television BNT2 will begin broadcasting video lessons for seventh grade students. The broadcasts begin at 9.15am and it is envisaged that they will be repeated between 1pm and 4pm, BNT said.

On March 18, Bulgarian language and mathematics lessons for pupils from grades one to four will start, from 9.15am to noon.

In the coming days, BNT2 will also broadcast lessons in other subjects for grade one to four pupils, the broadcaster said.

In a separate report, BNT said that about 90 per cent of schools in Bulgaria were expected to start different forms of distance learning on March 16.

Bulgaria’s Arsenal weapons plant has sent its 8600 employees on leave from March 16 to 29, company executive director Nikolai Ibushev said.

A small group of specialists will remain at work to repair damage from an incident last week that injured three workers.

Ivailo Penchev, owner of Walltopia, a company manufacturing climbing walls, has donated 222 000 leva to Alexandrovska Hospital in Sofia that the hospital will use to buy respirators. The respirators already have been ordered and will arrive in three to four weeks.

Headquartered in Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia, Walltopia is the world’s biggest manufacturer of artificial climbing structures, operating on six continents through offices in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Austria, Russia, China, UAE and Asia Pacific, and exporting to more than 70 countries around the globe.

In Bulgaria’s city of Plovdiv, seasonal washing of streets has begun, but this time with a difference – disinfectant has been added to the water as a step against the spread of coronavirus. Photo: podtepeto.com.

(Main Photo: Interior Ministry)

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