Covid-19: Bulgaria’s capital increases number of hospital beds
The number of beds for the treatment of patients with Covid-19 in Bulgaria’s capital city will be increased by about 10 per cent this week, Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandukova said on January 17.
According to the government’s new anti-epidemic plan, Sofia is at stage two.
Fandukova said that 71 per cent of intensive care beds in the city are occupied, while 63 per cent of beds for non-intensive care cases are occupied.
The increase in beds will be based on the capacity of hospitals to provide medical staff.
Schools and kindergartens in Sofia remain open, with only individual schools and kindergartens closed due to higher growth in ill and quarantined pupils and staff.
The percentage of vaccinated people in Sofia municipality is 43 per cent, while more than 534 000 people have completed vaccination, Fandukova said.
According to the national information system’s update for January 17, Bulgaria’s national Covid-19 morbidity rate is 1027.51 per 100 000 population on a 14-day basis, up from 1012.72 on January 16.
In Sofia, the Covid-19 morbidity rate is 1756.17 per 100 000 population.
In other Covid-19 news in Bulgaria on January 17:
As of January 18, planned admissions to and operations in hospitals in the Varna district will be suspended.
The measure does not apply to activities related to transplantation of organs, tissues and cells, diagnosis and treatment of patients with oncological and oncohaematological diseases, activities of assisted reproduction and childbirth, as well as activities of rehabilitation, long-term treatment and psychiatric care.
Visits to hospitals are also prohibited, except for those to terminally ill patients.
A similar measure came into effect in Veliko Turnovo on January 17.
A January 17 statement on the website of Sofiamed Hospital said that at its laboratories and those at Pulmed Hospital in Plovdiv, 80 per cent of the positive PCR tests that had been sequenced showed the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
The statement said that patients could find out which variant of the virus they are infected with in the result of their PCR test through the online system for access to the results of the two medical institutions. There is no additional fee on top of that paid for the standard PCR test.
(Photo of Tsaritsa Joanna Hospital in Sofia: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
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