Bulgaria’s Chief State Health Inspector: Antigen tests at airport for arrivals from UK
Arrangements have been made for people arriving in Bulgaria from the United Kingdom to undergo at the airport rapid antigen tests for Covid-19, Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev said, according to a report by Bulgarian National Radio on December 24.
As of December 23, Bulgaria allowed the resumption of UK-Bulgaria flights, having suspended them on Sunday in response to reports of a new strain of Covid-19 in Britain.
People arriving from the UK must go into quarantine for 10 days if the test is negative, and 14 days if it is positive, according to an order issued on December 23 by Health Minister Kostadin Angelov.
Eight flights were expected to arrive at Sofia Airport on December 24, and delays in handling passengers were possible because of the obligatory antigen tests, Kunchev said.
He said that teams had had to be put together urgently to provide a 24-hour service at Sofia Airport’s two terminals.
“There will probably be a delay, for which we apologise to the people, but they slept at the airports for three or four days anyway,” Kunchev said.
He estimated that it would take about 90 minutes to process the passengers from a flight.
Wizz Air announced special UK-Bulgaria flights on December 24 to enable Bulgarians in the UK to return home for the Christmas-New Year holiday period.
Reports said that tickets were still available for a flight to Sofia from London Luton leaving at 3.30pm. Two special flights to Sofia had sold out. One special flight to Varna was carried out this morning.
(Archive photo of Sofia Airport’s interior: Apostoloff)
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