Covid-19 in Bulgaria: Further easing of measures being considered – Health Minister
Bulgaria’s Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said on April 11 that in view of the decline in Covid-19 morbidity in the country, a further easing of anti-epidemic measures was being considered.
A day earlier, in an interview with Bulgarian National Television (BNT), Angelov expressed support for Chief Health Inspector Angel Kunchev’s call for the Covid-19 epidemic declaration to be extended until the end of May, and said that Kunchev should formally propose this to the Cabinet.
Angelov told BNT that the decline in morbidity was a good indication that the measures were working and if this trend continued, other measures will be relaxed.
In his Sunday statement, Angelov said that there was a continuing trend of the rate of infections going down, and the percentage of positive samples was lower than it was a week ago.
“The trend is clear,” he said.
Angelov said that while Bulgaria was at the beginning of this trend and hospitals were still overloaded, the most worrying thing was the huge fatigue among medical personnel.
His Sunday statement came a day before a loosening of a number of measures, in terms of an order issued by Angelov on April 8, including regarding school attendance and allowing restaurants to be open to up to 50 per cent capacity.
Angelov was accompanying Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, who used the occasion of a visit to a monastery to take a sideswipe at his political opponents regarding the Covid-19 situation.
“Some of our opponents did not understand the seriousness of the situation. They joked about the virus, challenged the measures, but when they get ill themselves, they run to the hospitals and want to be treated with Remdesivir,” Borissov said.
His comment came a day after Slavi Trifonov’s party said that Trifonov – noted for his lampooning of the Covid-19 situation in early 2020 and who has vocally opposed the restrictive measures – had tested positive for Covid-19.
After Bulgaria’s April 4 parliamentary elections, while Borissov’s GERB party got the largest share of votes, it finds itself facing all other parliamentary groups opposed to voting a GERB government into office.
Trifonov’s party, which ran second, currently has the best chance – in a difficult field – of nominating a government that will be voted into office.
For the rest of The Sofia Globe’s continuing coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria, please click here.
The Sofia Globe’s coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria is supported by the Embassies of Switzerland and Finland.
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