From February 28, in-person classes at all schools in Bulgaria
From February 28, all school pupils in Bulgaria will attend in-person classes, the Education Ministry said.
The ministry said that regional health inspectorates had lifted the restrictions because of the improving Covid-19 situation.
Pupils will be tested for Covid-19 once a week, with an exemption for those who have a green certificate, for vaccination, having had Covid-19, antibodies or a negative laboratory test.
Education Minister Nikolai Denkov said that he expected testing to be dropped, along with green certificates, by March 20 at the latest.
The ministry said that there were sufficient Covid-19 tests for pupils. If testing is dropped before they run out, they will be held in reserve for possible new epidemics, it said.
“Before the start of the last epidemic, about 1000 pupils a week fell ill,” Denkov said.
“At the peak of the wave we reached 12 000. Currently, about 2000 pupils are infected per week and some of them are hospitalised. In other words, the wave is not over yet,” he said.
As of February 26, Bulgaria’s national Covid-19 morbidity rate is 790.39 per 100 000 population on a 14-day basis, down from 842.85 on February 25 and down from 1088.55 a week ago, on February 19.
Twenty-three out of the 28 districts in Bulgaria are Covid-19 dark red zones, meaning a morbidity rate of 500 or more out of 100 000 population on a 14-day basis, according to figures posted on February 26 by the unified information portal.
The number of districts that are red zones – meaning a morbidity rate between 250 and 499.9 per 100 000 population – has increased to four, after Kyustendil dropped out of the dark red category.
The other districts that are red zones are Blagoevgrad, Pazardzhik and Smolyan.
One district is a yellow zone, meaning a morbidity rate between 100 and 249.9 per 100 000 population: Kurdzhali.
The morbidity rate is highest in the district of Varna, 1692.32 per 100 000 population, while in Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia, the Covid-19 morbidity rate is 902.54 per 100 000 population.
(Photo: Education Ministry)
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