Bulgaria successfully keeps Covid-19 epidemic under control, PM resumes weekly media briefings

Bulgaria is on the 26th place in terms of COVID-19 morbidity per 100,000 people from the population in Europe. The country continues to successfully keep the epidemic under control and prevent overloading the health system. At the national level, the necessary resources of protective equipment and medicines are provided for a period of up to 6 months.

This was reported by the Minister of Health Prof. Kostadin Angelov to the Prime Minister Boyko Borissov during a meeting of the National Task Force in the Council of Ministers on Septemebr 25. More data from the current situation with the spread of COVID-19 in our country and the implemented measures were also presented to the Prime Minister by the Chairman of the National Task Force and Chief of the Military Medical Academy Prof. Ventsislav Mutafchiiski, the Head of the Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases in Sofia, Todor Kantardzhiev, the director of the Sofia RHI Dr. Dancho Penchev, the director of "Pirogov" emergency hospital Prof. Asen Baltov and the Minister of Finance Kiril Ananiev.

The Minister of Health pointed out that Bulgaria, together with three other countries, is the only one in Europe with a negative trend of minus 6.5% in terms of newly registered cases in the last two weeks. While for the same period the average trend in Europe is for an increase of plus 22%. "The readiness of our healthcare system continues to be at a high level," said Minister Angelov.

"In Bulgaria, the implementation of measures to deal with the coronavirus is very well managed. So, at the moment, absolutely nothing necessitates different measures from the ones we have ", the Prime Minister Boyko Borissov emphasized. The prime minister was adamant that no intercity travel checkpoints would be made and denied any speculation about the closure of cities and the introduction of new restrictions on people. Borissov pointed out that countries with stricter measures than those in Bulgaria currently have much worse indicators than us.

The Prime Minister ordered the resumption of the practice of providing the media once a week with up-to-date information on the epidemic situation in the country at briefings in view of the beginning of seasonal flu and viral infections.

"In the first place, our health is important, in the second place - to keep the economy working," Borissov stressed. He added that thanks to the 60:40 and 80:20 measures, nearly 300,000 jobs have been saved and expressed special gratitude to all doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and paramedics for their round-the-clock care during the pandemic. "The increase of salaries in RHI and social services by 30% is absolutely made deserved and appreciated by the people", the Bulgarian Prime Minister was categorical.