News briefing on Covid-19: No cases of South Africa and Brazil variants registered in Bulgaria

We are satisfied with the results achieved so far, we monitor each number with the necessary concern ", Bulgaria’s Minister of Health, Prof. Kostadin Angelov, said on February 18 at the beginning of the regular briefing on the spread of coronavirus in the country.

"We are monitoring the increase in cases. We are reporting something that is an extremely good sign at the moment. We do not have a large pressure on medical institutions at the moment. In Kyustendil and Vratsa, I saw that my colleagues are doing well, they have everything they need: there are enough beds in the hospitals, the doctors are working calmly. This allows us to continue confidently with the plan we are following,to analyse the figures on a 14-day basis, followed by decisions whether to ease the anti-epidemic measures," he added.

1,246 new cases were registered in Bulgaria in the past 24 hours from 11,545 tests. the data of the Nationals Information Portal show.

"51 years is the average age of newly diagnosed. 43 people are under 19 years old. The total number of infected is 233,343 since the beginning of the pandemic. 3613 are accommodated in medical institutions. 296 are in intensive care units. 565 recovered. The total number of recoveries is 198,889. 41 died, thus bringing the total number of covid-19 related deaths to 9,744. The average age of the dead is 72 years," the minister said.

"40% of the beds are occupied with uncomplicated patients. The occupancy of intensive care beds to date is 42%. The highest percentage of occupied intensive care beds is in Blagoevgrad, Razgrad, Silistra, Sofia district and Haskovo. The highest percentage of occupied beds for uncomplicated patients is in Blagoevgrad - 81%, 57% - in Pleven district," he added.

Chief State Health Inspector, Angel Kunchev said that in terms of morbidity, Bulgaria remains 25th in Europe and 5th in the Balkans. In terms of mortality, ther country ranks 15th in the European Union.

Bulgaria, Greece and the Scandinavian countries, excluding Sweden, still remain in the lighter colour of zones in Europe. The worst situation remains in Portugal and the Czech Republic, some of the Benelux countries, summed up the Chief State Health Inspector.

14 districts in the country are in the red zone in terms of morbidity. 10 are in the orange zone."Vidin, Dobrich, Razgrad and Targovishte continue to maintain low morbidity, and the difference between Targovishte, where the morbidity is 23 per 100,000 and Kyustendil, where it is 408 per 100,000, " said Assoc. Prof. Kunchev.

According to him, the difference in the number of patients is due to the fact that the percentage of positive cases of the UK variant in Kyustendil is too high. So far, however, its spread is relatively slow, there is no way to stop it, explained Assoc. Prof. Kunchev and explained that in Bulgaria there are still no registered cases of the new variants of coronavirus from South Africa and Brazil.

Major-General Ventsislav Mutafchiyski, head of the national operational headwuarters against Covid-19, said that the number of cases was increasing, There is an increase of 24% compared to last week, based on 100,000 people. “We are at the levels (of morbidity) of October 22 last year, but the curve is still not so sharp, he said.

The mortality rate corresponded to that on November 5 last year, he added.

The head of Medicines Agency,Bogdan Kirilov, said that it was expected that by the end of February, about 240 000 doses of vaccines would arrive. About 57 600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are scheduled to arrive in Bulgaria on February 19.

Preliminary expectations are that more than 500 000 doses of vaccines would arrive in March, which would speed up the vaccination process, Kirilov said.

The Vaccination Task Force proposes to move to the fourth phase of the national vaccination plan, which includes the senior citizens, said Prof. Dr. Krassimir Gigov, Director General of the Bulgarian Red Cross and Head of the National Vaccination Headquarters.