Half of the country's districts are now in the red zone: Weekly briefing of the National Coronavirus Operational Headquarters

The incidence of coronavirus cases has increased by 24% this week compared to the previous seven days and half of the country's districts are now in the red zone, Gen. Ventsislav Mutafchiyski, Head of the National Operational Headquarters, said. Last week the number of patients was 139 per 100,000, but now figures are up to 173 per 100,000. The number of deaths has declined by 9% and currently stand at 7.3 percent. There is still a gradual increase in the number of new infections, Gen. Mutafchiyski said further. So far, the South African and Brazilian variants of Covid-19 have not been found in Bulgaria. This week Bulgaria ranks 25^th in incidence and 15^th in coronavirus deaths in the European Union.

More from today’s weekly briefing here.

Vaccination of senior citizens and persons with chronic conditions set to begin

The National Operational Headquarters recommends a start of vaccination of people included in the fourth phase of the process - the elderly and the chronically ill. Minister of Health Prof. Kostadin Angelov admitted the inoculation process was lagging behind. “A great many of the other countries are going ahead at a better rate whereas in this country there is a great deal of mistrust of the institutions and the health authorities,” he said during a working visit to Vratsa. According to Prof. Asen Baltov, head of the emergency hospital “Pirogov”, a mere 30% of all people who stated their wish to be vaccinated actually went to do it. By the end of the month, 240,000 doses of vaccines are expected in Bulgaria and over 500,000 in March, Bogdan Kirilov, head of the Bulgarian Drug Agency said.

More than half of Bulgarians do not want to be vaccinated

One in two Bulgarians believes that the Covid-19 pandemic has not only changed specific aspects of their everyday life, but their entire lifestyle, indicates a survey conducted by Alpha Research polling agency. More than one-third of the respondents are  experiencing psychological and emotional discomfort due to limited contacts with their relatives, fear of Covid-19 and significant changes in their lifestyle and the way they work. One-quarter of the respondents, mostly residents of Bulgarian villages, where social contacts are limited, contend that the coronavirus pandemic has not impacted their lives significantly. Education is among the sectors affected most. 61.6% of the respondents approve of the gradual return of upper-grade students to school. 78% of the parents approve of the resumption of in-person classes.

Slight decline in daily Covid-19 infections

1,246 is the number of newly registered infections in this country out of 11,545 tests performed, a slight decline compared to the previous day. Nearly 11% of the samples have returned positive, Single Coronavirus Information Portal data show. The highest number of newly registered cases is in the city of Sofia – 369, followed by the districts of Burgas - 137 and Plovdiv - 72.The number of active cases is 24,710. The number of infections reported since the beginning of the pandemic in this country is now 233,342. A total of 3,613 patients are being treated in hospital, 296 of them in intensive care.564 people have recovered in the past 24 hours. The total number of recoveries has reached 198,888. In the past day, 41 people with coronavirus have died, bringing the death toll to 9,444. 85,920 doses of vaccine have been administered so far, 4,582 of them in the past 24 hours.

1.5 million Bulgarians have had Covid-19: survey

One-third of the adults in Bulgaria have already had Covid-19, indicates a sociological survey by Gallup International Balkan conducted by the face-to-face method. 10% of the people infected with the novel coronavirus had severe symptoms, which corresponds with the official medical data, BGNES reports. The highest number of infections was reported among younger people in Sofia and other big cities. The lowest number of Covid-19 cases was confirmed in the countryside and among people aged 65 and over. 
27% of the respondents want to get vaccinated against Covid-19. 48%, mostly young people from Sofia and the big cities, do not want to be vaccinated. One-quarter of the respondents are undecided. 1% of the respondents say they have already been vaccinated, which matchesofficial statistical data.

Compiled by Diana Tsankova

Translated from Bulagrian: Radio Bulgaria's English-language team 

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