The Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine will be used in Bulgaria without restrictions. This was announced by the Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev at a briefing after a meeting of the National Vaccination Headquarters. He recalled that the headquarters was waiting for the decision of the US Food and Drug Administration, which is positive. In the meantime, 7 more European countries have decided to administer this vaccine, BNR reported.

Kunchev announced that a certain amount of the single-dose vaccine will be aimed at those employed in the tourism sector before the summer tourist season, as well as among the Roma population.

"This vaccine is a single dose and a document can be issued immediately after it is given and it is administered and it will be known which people working in tourism are already protected," Kunchev explained.

In the coming weeks, there will be mainly supplies of RNA vaccines to Bulgaria,  the director of the Medicines Agency Bogdan Kirilov said at the briefing.

There has been a decline in vaccination interest, Dr. Georgi Mindov, chairman of the Association of General Practitioners in Sofia, has told the BNR's Horizont program. "There is no interest in any of the vaccines. The number of those who wish to get vaccinated has sharply dropped," the doctor says.

This is happening at the backdrop of various vaccines available, Dr. Mindov adds. There are three people wishing to receive the Pfizer vaccine in the doctor’s list but he needs one more in order to open a vial. His patients vaccinated with the first dose of Astra Zeneca were not hesitant about receiving the second dose. The GP has not received inquiries about Janssen or Sputnik vaccines.

400 new cases of coronavirus infection have been registered in the past 24 hours, according to the Single Coronavirus Information Portal. A little over 7.33% of 5,445 tests performed returned positive result. Most of the new cases are in Sofia-city – 151, followed by the districts of Varna with 50, Plovdiv with 28, Burgas and Sofia districts - 25 each.

56,650 people are actively ill and there are 8,080 coronavirus patients in hospitals. 746 of them are in intensive care wards. 48 people with coronavirus lost their lives in the past day. There were 557 recoveries in the past 24 hours.

A total of 2,070 vaccines have been administered for a day. The total number of vaccine doses administered so far has reached 723,240. A total of 163,966 people have already been vaccinated with 2 doses.

The pupils from the 5th, 9th and 12th grade are going back to school as of today, as planned.

If the spread of the coronavirus continues its positive trend, the 6th and the 11th grade pupils could resume in-person school attendance as early as 10 May, Minister of Education Krasimir Valchev announced.

In his words these are the grades which spent the least amount of time studying outside their homes during the current school year. According to plan they were supposed to return to school on 17 May. Another five grades could go back to in-person school attendance as of the same date, Minister Valchev added. 

Overall mortality during the first quarter of the year compared to the same period of 2020 is up by over 26%, National Statistical Institute data show. More than 36, 000 people have died during the first three months of 2021 which is 7,500 more than a year ago.

Mortality is up in all regions of the country. The first effects of the Covid-19 pandemic were felt in March last year whereas during the first three months of this year a significant surge in coronavirus incidence was registered.

Reporting by Marta Mladenova, Horizont channel.