Covid-19: Bulgaria announces support scheme for lowest-earners in cultural field
Bulgaria’s government announced on April 10 a three-month financial support scheme for all freelancers in the cultural field who earned less than 1000 leva (about 500 euro) a month last year.
State of Emergency measures against Covid-19 have left theatres and other cultural venues closed.
Those eligible will include actors, artists, dancers, musicians, writers and all others working freelance in the cultural field, who will be paid a minimum wage each month for the current two months of the State of Emergency and a month afterwards.
Proof of eligibility will be based on incomes declared in their 2019 tax returns. Applications will have to be submitted online to the Ministry of Culture.
It is estimated that the scheme will support about 1200 people, at a cost of about 2.7 million leva.
Separately, the jobs of those employed by state cultural institutions have been guaranteed for six months.
In other developments on the morning of April 10, the national operational headquarters said that six new cases of Covid-19 had been confirmed overnight, bringing the total to 624.
The total number of deaths to date is 24, with no new deaths since the evening of April 8.
A total of 54 people have recovered and have been discharged from hospital.
There are 230 patients in hospital, 33 of them in intensive care.
On April 10, the government launched the koronavirus.bg portal, which includes information on the number of cases, symptoms of Covid-19, the declaration form required for intercity travel, contact details for government institutions, among other items.

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(Main photo: ken e/publicdomainpictures.net)