Covid-19 in Bulgaria: Online register for vaccinations being readied, Health Minister says

Bulgarian nationals who want a Covid-19 vaccine jab will be able to put their names down in an electronic register, currently under development and expected to be finished by the end of the month, Bulgaria’s Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said on February 1.

The register, developed by the ministry together with the state-owned IT company Informatsionno Obsluzhvane, would allow Bulgarian nationals to fill in their details and choose whether to get the jab at their general practitioner doctor or at a medical facility.

Angelov said that the register would simplify the logistics of the vaccination drive. “We expect this project to be completed by the end of February, so we are ready to begin working with the system in early March,” Angelov said in a meeting with Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, as quoted by the government media service.

Bulgaria’s Cabinet approved a five-phase plan for vaccinations against Covid-19 in December, which the government is set to amend later this week to include officials involved in the April 4 parliamentary elections in the third phase of the plan.

Angelov said he would table the draft decision at the Cabinet’s next sitting. The government usually holds its weekly sittings on Wednesdays.

On the topic of the vaccination drive’s progress, Borissov said that the Cabinet was proceeding conservatively, holding back some amounts of vaccines to allow people to get their second jabs.

He said that Bulgaria had much softer restrictions than other countries in Europe: “The decision to close restaurants was not political, but medical. The instant that it is safe, that same day the Health Minister will allow a certain type of activity. We want all sectors to resume work as soon as possible,” Borissov was quoted as saying.

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