Covid-19: Bulgaria in 10th place in mortality in EU
Bulgaria ranks 10th in the European Union on a 14-day basis in terms of mortality from Covid-19, Deputy Health Minister Boiko Penkov told a weekly briefing on October 29.
A week earlier, at the October 22 Health Ministry briefing, it was announced that Bulgaria then was in ninth place in the EU in terms of mortality linked to the disease.
Penkov said that increases in the number of newly infected people in Bulgaria were being reported in all age groups. There was a serious increase in infected pupils at high schools, he said.
He said that in the three days since October 26, Bulgaria had reached a record incidence of 220 cases per 100 000 population.
The number of infected people was 102 per cent higher than the previous week. Most of the infected are in the 20 to 60 age group.
The increase in the number of people admitted for hospital treatment was worrying, Penkov said. The number of people admitted to hospital was increasing by a third every week, he said.
The number of deaths in the past week had increased by 50 per cent. The 70 to 79 age group accounted for about a third of the deaths, the 60-69 age group about 27 per cent and the 80-89 age group about 18 per cent.
More than 2000 medical personnel had tested positive. Thirty-seven per cent were doctors and 33 per cent were nurses. Medical personnel make up about five per cent of the positive cases in Bulgaria.
National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases head Professor Todor Kantardzhiev, a member of the national headquarters against Covid-19, urged the public not to use immunostimulants in large quantities and not to take excessive doses of Vitamin D.
The immune system should not be constantly stimulated, he said. The better route was proper nutrition, physical exercise and a positive outlook. He said that people should avoid constantly looking at television reports about Covid-19.
Kantardzhiev emphasised the importance of mask-wearing to protect the public from new coronavirus and reiterated his call to the public to comply with all anti-epidemic measures.
Professor Assen Baltov, head of Pirogov emergency hospital in Sofia, said that the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals in Bulgaria was expected to reach 4000 within days.
Eighteen out of the 28 districts in Bulgaria are now classed as red zones, with more than 120 out of 100 000 cases per population. Six are classed are orange zones, with 60 cases per 100 000 population and the rest as yellow zones. No district in Bulgaria currently is classed as a green zone.
Bulgaria’s Health Minister Kostadin Angelov and Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev did not attend the weekly briefing because both are under quarantine as contact persons after Prime Minister Boiko Borissov tested positive.
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