Bulgaria’s national vaccination task force decided on April 22 that “green corridors” for vaccinations against Covid-19 for all comers will be opened from April 30 to May 9, the Health Ministry said in a media statement.

Vaccines of the mRNA type will be on offer. Such vaccines include the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna jabs.

The statement said that the regional health inspectorates will make the necessary arrangements and details of the vaccination points will be announced on April 26.

Fifty per cent of the vaccines that will be delivered will be distributed to general practitioners, who will continue the implementation of phase four of the national vaccination plan.

Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev said at the “green corridors”, there would be vaccines of all types currently held by Bulgaria.

National vaccination headquarters head Professor Krassimir Gigov told a briefing on April 22 that the European Medicines Agency had said that the benefits of the Janssen vaccine outweighed the possible side-effects.

The opinion of two more European commissions is expected on April 23, and only after that the health authorities in Bulgaria would make a decision about using the Janssen vaccine, Gigov said.

He said that from May 10, people would be able to choose which vaccine to receive.

To date, 676 501 doses of vaccines against Covid-19 have been administered in Bulgaria, including 19 168 in the past 24 hours.

A total of 143 185 people have received a second dose, including 7808 in the past 24 hours, the national information system said on April 22.