Health Minister: Measures in place during the extension of epidemic emergency

Bulgaria’s Minister of Health Kiril Ananiev announced on June 10 that with his order from today, the epidemic emergency situation is extended until the end of June.

He said that the spread of the coronavirus is a serious danger to human health and life. The figures clearly show it , with more than 7 million, people infected in the world and more than 400 000 people dead.

Ananiev added that the low level of morbidity in Bulgaria was due to the measures taken, in advance and then by the government, which had kept the disease at a relatively low level.

He said that the measures currently implemented would continue for 15 days, until the end of the month, with no new measures.

The measures I have outlined in the order remain in place in three main areas.

Bulgaria extends its temporary ban on the entry to the country of non-EU nationals. The temporary ban would not to apply to citizens of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. As to all other third (non-EU) countries, we expect a pan-European decision on June 15, but in our opinion, if the borders are opened for third countries, that will happen at the earliest from July 1, Ananiev said.

The second area is related to anti-epidemic measures – physical distance, hand hygiene, disinfection and wearing masks. In indoor public places, we can highly recommend wearing them. The only mandatory thing is to wear masks in public transport, where physical distancing is more difficult to be kept.

The third area of the measures includes temporary limitation of mass public events. The limitation on use of seating capacity for indoor cultural and entertainment events would change from 30% to 50% of capacity, the minister said.

Ananiev also announced that the ministry and the national task force against the coronavirus will continue to monitor the clusters or outbreaks very closely in order to take appropriate measures.