Covid-19 in Bulgaria: Second doctor dies
An emergency services doctor at Sofia’s Alexandrovska Hospital, Nelly Pandova Ilieva, who had tested positive for Covid-19 and subsequently tested negative, has died, it was announced on May 3.
The death of Dr Ilieva, who was 61, is the second in two days of a medical professional in Bulgaria who had tested positive for Covid-19.
Operational headquarters staff chief Major-General Ventsislav Mutafchiyski said that Dr Ilieva had been one of the first emergency service medics to have tested positive.
She had been treated in St Anna hospital. After two consecutive negative tests and after her condition improved, she had been discharged for home treatment.
However, on May 2 her condition had suddenly worsened and she had been intubated on arrival at Alexandrovska Hospital.
Mutafchiyski said that it was worrying that while she had given two negative samples, at the hospital a test produced a positive result.
He said that elsewhere in the world, there had been cases where patients had been discharged after testing negative but had to be readmitted after re-infection. This called into question immunity after the illness had passed.
The Bulgarian Medical Association paid tribute to Dr Ilieva, saying that with honour, she had fought on the front line and fulfilled her professional and moral duty.
The association received the news of her death with deep sadness, it said. “The pain of the incident is indescribable.”
On May 2, after the announcement that Sliven hospital Dr Iliana Ivanova had died, the Bulgarian Medical Association said that it was setting up a fundraising campaign for the families of medics who died in the battle against Covid-19. It is donating 5000 leva to Dr Ivanova’s family. Details of the account for donations would be announced on Monday, the association said.
The operational HQ said on the morning of May 3 that over the past 24 hours, 982 samples had been tested for Covid-19. Of these, 23 produced a positive result.
The total number of confirmed cases to date is 1611, of which 1231 are positive. The death toll is 72.
A total of 308 people have recovered.
There are 321 people in hospital, 40 of them in intensive care.
A total of 176 medical personnel have tested positive, with two new cases, a doctor and a technical assistant at Pirogov emergency hospital in Sofia.
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Section supported by the Embassy of Switzerland
