Covid-19: Bulgaria’s caretaker Health Minister hits back at criticism from former government
Bulgaria’s caretaker Health Minister Stoicho Katsarov has hit back at criticism from figures from the former government, including his predecessor Kostadin Angelov, describing them as “people who led to a complete catastrophe in the fight against the pandemic”.
“We are the last in terms of vaccination, the first in terms of mortality, the last in terms of the number of people tested, and the restrictive measures were applied for political and election reasons,” Katsarov said in an interview with Bulgarian National Radio on May 30.
He said that one of the mistakes that had led to the sad consequences of the Covid-19 crisis was that “politicians made decisions about things they didn’t understand”.
Katsarov said that he wanted to return matters to normalcy, for experts to make the decisions.
He said that the critics, instead of apologising, were trying to invent problems.
The Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria was calm, but the number of vaccinations was low.
“Although we have reorganised the process, people do not want to be vaccinated. We also have launched an information campaign,” he said.
The cause of the horrific mortality in Bulgaria must be investigated, said Katsarov, who on May 28 announced a probe into the actions by the former government and health authorities regarding the fight against Covid-19.
“The first goal is not to seek responsibility, but to make sure that this thing does not happen again,” he said.
“Because if we don’t make an effort to analyse what led to the appalling levels, it will happen to us again. If we are reasonable, we are obliged to check the circumstances and learn the lessons. If illegal behaviour by officials is detected, they will be held accountable.”
Katsarov said that so far there was no single protocol for the treatment of Covid-19, so he had appointed a working group to draft the rules.
(Screenshot of Katsarov: BNT)
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