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By the end of the week, thermal cameras similar to those already in use at Bulgaria's airports will be installed at the country's land borders and sea ports, according to General Ventsislav Mutafchiyski, head of the crisis staff against new coronavirus.

Border officials have been issued with protective masks and gloves, the Interior Ministry said.

The crisis staff, set up by government order on February 24, has recommended that all large indoor public events be cancelled.

Bulgarians arriving from abroad may be tested for new coronavirus free of charge, but only if they are displaying symptoms.

Flag carrier Bulgaria Air has cancelled all its flights to and from Milan until March 27.

All passengers on canceled flights can request a full refund for their airline tickets as well as change their travel date without paying a fee, Bulgaria Air said on its website.

At Sofia Airport, an exercise was conducted on February 25 to test responses, in a scenario in which two passengers arriving on a flight from Istanbul "showed symptoms" of new coronavirus.

Sofia Airport's Terminals 1 and 2 have thermal cameras monitoring all passengers. Anyone showing a temperature of 37 degrees or higher is taken to an insulator to be screened. Symptoms of possible new coronavirus result in the passenger being transported to a designated hospital with facilities against infectious diseases.

As at February 25, there have been no confirmed cases of new coronavirus in Bulgaria.

People wearing surgical masks in public have become a common sight in Bulgaria's major cities. Media reports said that stocks of such masks at pharmacies were running low.

(Photo of the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint: Interior Ministry)

New coronavirus: Bulgaria to install thermal cameras at land borders, sea ports

February 25, 2020, by The Sofia Globe staff

Bulgaria's government has formed a crisis staff to deal with the threat from new coronavirus, it emerged at a February 24 meeting of the Cabinet security council headed by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov.

The special meeting of the security council had been called for February 25 but was brought forward to the afternoon of February 24.

The crisis staff, to be headed by Military Medical Academy director Dr. Ventsislav Mutafchiiski, brings together chiefs from the Interior Ministry, Border Police, State Health Inspectorate, Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Health.

Borissov called on everyone returning to Bulgaria from at-risk areas to voluntarily quarantine themselves for 14 days after arrival.

Noting the outbreak of new coronavirus in Italy, Chief State Health Inspector Associate Professor Angel Kunchev said that because contacts between Italy and Bulgaria were much more intense than between Bulgaria and China, this made the situation more difficult.

There were monitoring devices at airports but the question now was whether to instal them at land borders too, he said.

There will be an exercise on February 25 testing the response of institutions to a theoretical outbreak of coronavirus in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria Air is cancelling its flights to and from Milan until February 27, the airline's press service told Bulgarian National Radio.

As at February 24, there have been no confirmed cases of new coronavirus in Bulgaria.

On February 24, Health Minister Kiril Ananiev said that the cause of death of a British tourist of Chinese descent in the mountain resort of Bansko this past weekend was a heart attack. Preliminary results of an autopsy had shown this, while laboratory tests had established that the deceased had not been infected with coronavirus.

Ananiev said that the necessary organisation had been set up in Bulgaria to respond to the possible arrival of new coronavirus in the country.

Medical personnel had been provided with protective equipment and clothing.

On a daily basis, the Ministry of Health receives information on all citizens arriving in Bulgaria from areas with confirmed cases of the Covid-19 new coronavirus. All of them are treated with special care by the Bulgarian authorities, Ananiev said.

Thermal tests are being conducted at airports in Bulgaria, he said.

If Covid-19 is suspected, the passenger is admitted to a hospital with facilities against infectious diseases.

Passengers not showing symptoms may undergo voluntary home quarantine under the supervision of a GP or the relevant regional health inspectorate.

Bulgarian government forms crisis staff against coronavirus

February 24, 2020, by The Sofia Globe staff

The arrival of new coronavirus in Bulgaria is inevitable, Chief State Health Inspector Associate Professor Angel Kunchev said on February 27, as the head of the crisis staff against the disease said that as of now, there were no confirmed cases in the country.

"The time for border protection is over. Imports of the new Covid-19 coronavirus are inevitable. This has been clear for a long time to anyone working in the field," Kunchev said.

"From now on, the focus should be on receiving and treating patients in order to minimize harm and loss," he said.

The arrival of new coronavirus in Bulgaria was inevitable because there were already cases in almost all Balkan countries, Kunchev said.

Speaking at a regular briefing on February 27, crisis staff chief Professor Ventsislav Mutafchiyski said that 14 people, including four foreigners - Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Egyptian - had been admitted to the Military Medical Academy after arriving from Italy and having shown symptoms.

Thirty-four flights arrive in Bulgaria from Italy each week, most landing at Sofia Airport's Terminal 1.

Processing of passengers had been re-organised because of the workload. Arrivals from Italy at Terminal 1 would go through a separate corridor to shorten airport arrival time for passengers.

The World Health Organization European Region said in an update on the morning of February 27 that there were 481 confirmed cases of Covid-19 new coronavirus in Europe, with 14 confirmed deaths.

Seven European countries reported their first cases in the past 24 hours: Estonia, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Georgia, North Macedonia, and Romania, WHO European Region said.

Countries with confirmed cases were Italy 400, Germany 21, France 17, Spain 12, UK nine, Croatia three, Austria two, Finland two, Israel two, Russia two, Sweden two, Belgium one, Denmark one, Estonia one, Georgia one, Greece one, North Macedonia one, Norway one and Romania one.

Chief State Health Inspector: Arrival of coronavirus in Bulgaria 'inevitable'

February 27, 2020, by The Sofia Globe staff

Rumours of a change to the exchange rate between the lev and the euro have resulted in Bulgarians massively changing the local currency for euro, according to a report by Bulgarian National Radio, citing central Bulgarian National Bank records for January.

The rumours, fuelled by disinformation on social networks, have flown in spite of assurances by Bulgaria's Finance Minister, Prime Minister, central bank governor and from European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis that when Bulgaria accedes to the euro zone, it will do so at the current fixed lev-euro exchange rate.

Some weeks ago, Bulgaria's National Assembly adopted a resolution saying that it would only allow euro accession at the current exchange rate.

BNR reported BNB figures for household deposits as saying that the sum in accounts in leva had dropped by more than 352 million leva while accounts in euro had increased by more than 250 million.

In total, bank accounts in leva had shrunk by almost 1.2 billion, while accounts in euro had increased by 350 million, BNR said.

In recent weeks, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov repeatedly has emphasised that Bulgaria will enter the euro zone with the same exchange rate as present.

On February 13, Goranov, citing models used by the IMF for evaluating exchange rates, said that the lev was currently undervalued.

In a February 22 television interview, he said that Bulgarians' emotions about joining the euro were being manipulated, and he pointed to the parliamentary resolution requiring the maintaining of the fixed exchange rate up to the point of euro accession.

No country that had joined the euro zone had become impoverished, but on the contrary, there had been a sharp convergence in the recently acceded countries and an improvement in their economic situation, Goranov said.

According to him, this is logical "because the moment the countries in the euro area admit it, it is a certificate for the quality of governance of a country and its economic and financial system".

“The practice of the recently acceded countries shows that the accumulated inflation due to the changeover to the euro is measured in the range of 0.2 - 0.3 per cent on an annual basis. Inflation is not related to the euro, the richer we get, the more prices will rise and we will get closer to the EU price levels."

Interviewed on radio on February 20, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis confirmed that Bulgaria would enter the currency mechanism and the euro zone with its current exchange rate of 1 euro for 1.95583 leva.

Recently, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov has been more cautious in talk about euro accession, saying on February 18 that the government would not force entry into the ERM-II "waiting room" unless there was "absolute consensus".

Speaking on January 28, Bulgarian National Bank governor Dimitar Radev said that Bulgaria would not remove the currency board mechanism that pegs the lev to the euro. This topic had never been discussed with the European financial institutions, he said.

(Photo: Bericht)

Rumours prompt Bulgarians to exchange leva for euro on large scale - report

February 26, 2020, by The Sofia Globe staff

Notch one up for us, you sad, hatred-filled, antisemitic pseudo-patriots. On this night in February 2020, your torchlight Lukov March, your tribute to a pro-Nazi, was doused into a damp squib.

All of these years, since 2003, we have had to bear witness to your egregious evening parade, through the streets of our Bulgarian capital city, in honour of your ersatz hero. Your dark-clad garb, your false elevation of an individual who, left to himself, would have sold himself and this country out to Hitler's Nazi regime, with all the cost of the six million, and more, that would have meant.

Finally, by the force of the courts of the democratic Bulgaria of the 21st century, your obscene and dangerous parade was halted in its tracks. Tracks that traced the steps that, in their worship of false gods, sacrificed so many on an altar of hatred of the Other.

By the order of the mayor of this city and the judgment of this country's court, your goosestepping footsteps have been stopped. Instead of your fascist parade, you were left, in your pathetic portions, to lay flowers in tribute to a person who personifies hatred and destruction. General Hristo Lukov, fascist, pro-Nazi, traitor to every of the finest traditions of a free Bulgaria.

You may denounce, as I am sure you will, these writings of the victory against you as the scrawlings of a foreigner, a Zionist, a Jew, a Roman Catholic, a Protestant, the Other, whatever convenient epithet you find most suitable to your nefarious, if ill-conceived epithetics, a non-adherent of your supposed Orthodox Christian faith, as anti-Bulgarian; against your venal, chauvinistic claims to the heritage of Levski, Botev, Paisi Hillendaski. You may go on in this vein. As you will; we stand with those many Bulgarians who will never let you traduce the finest traditions of this country, that defied the Nazis, and did not collaborate. Those Bulgarians who forever will stand in the shining light of ethics, who stood up when it mattered to rescue the lives of their Bulgarian Jewish sisters and brothers. Inasmuch as Bulgarians who face history with honesty today acknowledge what transpired in the "new lands".

Yes, with those of us who mourn, and ever will, the more than 11 000 under Bulgarian lands, in northern Greece, the former Yugoslavia, the city of Pirot, handed over to join the six million and more delivered to their murders.

And those of us who, against the background of the Holocaust and all it represents, reject with contempt, in this 21st century, the cheap trolling of those who who post comments that are hateful towards the State of Israel, and by extension, Jews as a whole. Those who pursue this fatal, vile, path, slavering in their latter-day hatred for Jews. Those who indulge in hypocrisy, who indulge themselves in the fake balm of false equivalence.

So tonight, you of the Lukov March whose grasping for cheap flowers and base pseudo-patriotism, turned a minor profit for the street corner florists of Sofia, your flame is doused. Your little crypto-fascist parade is averted, and this year, the streets of our city are free of the stench of the flames of your Nuremberg-style torches. Your petty flower-laying at the house of a pro-Nazi hardly worth first item on the news, in this first decade of the 21st century.

Your abuse of the name Bulgaria and its people, regrettably, stands recorded. We do not see you in mourning for the victims of the Holocaust. Why would we? No doubt, you would deny it, or distort it, or recruit into your ranks those youth in ignorance of it.

Yet we see you, you pathetic few, and we stand in contempt of you. We have this in common, with you, however cross our purposes: Memory. Memory, the core of consciousness. We do not forget, as you, in your crude daubings on the streets of Sofia, say that you will never forget. The difference between us? Between honesty about history, and perversion of the past.

You may not, as you revere your false idol, be honest about history, even though you would do well to consign your Lukov to the ashes; he, and his like. We never will.

If there is to be any flame to be held aloft in the night, it is that of the sanctity of human life, of the eternity of every human life, against, against, the extinguishing of human life, down to the youngest life murdered in the Holocaust; it is your flaming torchlight, your veneration of a figure representing only hatred, that this night, in our city of Sofia, was extinguished. And righteously so.

In Bulgaria: Your little 'Lukov March' torches were doused

February 22, 2020, by clive