Medicines Agency: Bulgaria expects deliveries of 270 000 doses of vaccines by end of next week

Bulgaria expects to receive deliveries of three types of Covid-19 vaccines between today and the end of next week, adding up to 270 000 doses, Medicines Agency head Bogdan Kirilov said in a television interview on March 26.

Kirilov told bTV that on March 26, a total of 16 375 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are expected, and next week, 31 500 of the BioNTech-Pfizer and 51 600 of the Moderna vaccine.

A further 150 000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are expected within the next week, he said.

He said that there was confirmation that 250 000 doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine would be delivered to Bulgaria in April.

“We expect more than 80 000 from Moderna and about 300 000 from AstraZeneca. The share of mRNA vaccines in April will be higher,” Kirilov said.

The implementation of the national vaccination plan depends on the quantities of vaccines delivered, he said.

“According to the estimates of the producers with updated deliveries, by the end of June we expect a little over 4.5 million doses to be delivered in Bulgaria, which means that there will be quantities for more than two million population,” he said.

Kirilov said that all countries had requested larger quantities of vaccines than their populations.

He said that there was a positive change in attitudes in Bulgaria towards vaccines against Covid-19.

According to Kirilov, in October and November about 20 per cent of Bulgarians wanted to be vaccinated, and this had now risen to 40 per cent.

Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev, interviewed by Bulgarian National Television on March 26, said that so far there had been no case of anyone becoming severely ill after being immunised.

Kunchev said that all vaccines that arrive in Bulgaria are used within three to four days.

He said that the quantities of incoming BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, as well as Astra Zeneca, are gradually starting to grow.

“If there are enough deliveries, we will reach half a million vaccinated at the beginning of next month,” Kunchev said.

He said that people should not be afraid to get vaccinated, “since we already have the opinion of experts from both the (EU) regulatory body and the national one”.

(Photo: EC Audiovisual Service)

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