Covid-19: Bulgaria’s epidemic declaration should be extended to end of May – Kunchev

Bulgaria’s Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev said on April 9 that the anti-epidemic measures against the spread of Covid-19, which are due to expire at the end of April, should be extended to the end of May.

Kunchev was speaking to Bulgarian National Television the day after Health Minister Kostadin Angelov issued an order easing a number of measures, including allowing restaurants, as of April 12, to use up to 50 per cent of their seating capacity.

“Yes, a slight decline is beginning, but there is no way to bring the pandemic under control by the end of April,” Kunchev said.

“The capacity of the hospitals will last, but I don’t know how long the people will last. The fatigue is huge. The reduction of the morbidity still is not easing hospitalisations. It is too early to be complacent,” he said.

Regarding vaccinations with AstraZeneca, Kunchev said that the risk of side effects after vaccination was so small that it was worth completing the vaccination.

Pirogov emergency hospital head Assen Baltov, speaking to Nova Televizia on April 9, said that people who had been vaccinated with AstraZeneca should not worry.

The European Medicines Agency had spoken of an extremely small risk, he said.

“A hundred people out of more than 25 million had experienced these side effects, which had not yet been proven,” Baltov said.

Administering of the second doses of AstraZeneca should begin after April 15, he said.

For the rest of The Sofia Globe’s continuing coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria, please click here.

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