Covid-19: Bulgaria to begin tracking vaccine immunity ‘within three months’
Bulgaria plans to begin tracking acquired immunity as a result of coronavirus vaccinations in a nationwide survey within three months, the country’s Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev said on December 28.
The survey would include at least 1000 individuals from different age groups, who would be tested for antibodies at two months after receiving the vaccines, six months, one year and two years.
It was important to test “what kind of immunity is being built, how stressed it is, how long can it protect people and how long, whether it is the same with different people – depending on age, gender and maybe even professions,” Kunchev said, as quoted by Bulgarian National Radio.
He said that so far, front-line medical personnel who received the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine did not report any serious side effects, only brief pain at the site of the injection.
That data was already being tracked by the national information system. People who have received the vaccine can also report any adverse reactions to the country’s medicines agency as well, Kunchev said.
Kunchev’s remarks came on the day that Bulgaria expanded its vaccination programme, with front-line medical personnel in a number of town – Shoumen, Stara Zagora, Turgovishte, Pazardjik, Yambol, Smolyan, Sliven, Haskovo, Svilengrad, Pernik, Razgrad and Rousse, among others – getting their first jab.
The first vaccinations in Bulgaria were carried out simultaneously in Sofia, Plovdiv and Bourgas on December 27, as part of an EU-wide vaccination campaign against Covid-19. On that first day, 699 people got the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said on December 28.
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