Bulgaria’s Health Minister: We Aim at 70 Percent Vaccinated by June

Society » HEALTH | March 1, 2021, Monday // 12:33
Bulgaria: Bulgaria’s Health Minister: We Aim at 70 Percent Vaccinated by June

 

Health Minister Kostadin Angelov prefers to have lines in front of vaccination centers than people waiting for ambulances or to be admitted to hospitals. In bTV studio, he assured that there was no chaos, although there was talk of chaos. What makes him unhappy is precisely the talks of chaos. Allegedly this only happened in Bulgaria, although there are lines everywhere and the unpredictable virus is raging all over the world. "When someone changes the rules in the course of the game, things like this happen," Angelov explained the crowdingand not knowing if and when there will be vaccines, including for GPs.

Kostadin Angelov assured that the second doses for RNA vaccinated  are stored and their second jab is not put at risk.  The second dose of AstraZeneca not kept in reserve, but in this case the period for the second shot can be 10 weeks. The opening of the ‘green corridors’ is motivated by the fact that vaccines should not be wasted after one vial is opened but listed people do not show up. Currently, with about 30% of the 212,000 doses the elderly between the ages of 64 and 85 are vaccinated

Angelov is proud that they have managed to reverse the trends. He quoted a 12% increase in vaccination intent but did not refer to any representative survey.

Angelov confirmed that negotiations are underway for vaccines on loan, as it transpired yesterday evening. We keep looking for vaccines, we have different talks at EU level, and our goal is to push supply forward in time. To the initial information that talks were taking place with Greece and France, he added Germany.

Our goal is to have 70% of the population vaccinated by June, Kostadin Angelov said, and expressed confidence that we can do it, although currently the vaccination rate is about 3%. We have ordered a sufficient number of vaccines, even if we vaccinate 100% of our population, there will be about 3 million left, explained Minister Angelov. Bulgaria is not a contractual partner of the vaccines manufacturers and there is really nothing it can do about the undelivered quantities or delayed supplies, Admitted Angelov.

All we can do is to refer the matter to the European institutions, which is what we do. The Health Minister reminded that the decision to entitle the EC to conclude the contracts was voted by the National Assembly.

About the opening of the restaurants Angelov said: “We did it in full awareness of what could happen.”

Bulgaria continues to walk on the razor edge in terms of anti-epidemic measures. There was already talk of a "Bulgarian soft model,” in the words of Angelov, who thinks that they should be just so soft and so hard that people may believe in them. "People are not conscientious enough to strictly comply with the measures", according to Kostadin Angelov.

The reopening of pubs and restaurants from today, March 1, Angelov defended as a coherent policy. We promised to open them at morbidity below 200 in 14 days, the minister said, pointing out that it currently is between 12-13%. Morbidity is on the rise, but death rate has reached a plateau. The system is absolutely ready to cope and there is no red alarm signal, Angelov assured. He hopes we don't have a spike in the incidence rate. "My goal is to return the peace of mind to the people," Angelov said.

 

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Tags: Bulgaria, health minister, vaccination campaign

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