According to Magdalena Kostova, director of the "Demographic and Social Statistics "at the National Statistic Institute (NSI), Covid affects all demographic events, as well as our entire lives, including mortality.

Between 108,000 and 110,000 people have died each year in the last 10 years, while last year the number is up to 124,000.

There have been similar numbers in history said Kostova.

In 1918, after the First World War, we lost 151,000 people. After the Balkan Wars - 121,000.

"These are the largest numbers in our entire demographic history", since there is statistics commented the NSI expert.

In general, the mortality rate in Bulgaria is really high. Covid contributed to this. If we take a look at last year's data by weeks, the high mortality rate follows the waves of Coronavirus infections.

"Last year there were weeks in which more than 4,500 people died, which is an extremely high figure." Kostova pointed out that 32 out of every thousand Bulgarians died during these weeks, and a similar ratio existed during and after the First World War.

"This spring we still have an increase in overall mortality, although we have not reached the same number as in November last year."

 "All this means that in addition to those 7,500 who died of Covid, according to the National Information Portal, there are other people who either did not receive adequate medical help or died for some other reason," Kostova said.

Last year, the population of Bulgaria decreased by 34,934 people, and this decline is entirely due to the negative natural increase. The fastest depopulating cities are Vidin, Vratsa, Montana, Gabrovo and Kardzhali. Mortality there is extremely high. For the first time in years, the population of Sofia has decreased.

The increased mortality comes along with constant delays and amendments in the Vaccination plan of the Bulgarian authorities announced in December. Currently Bulgaria still lags far behind in vaccination compared to other European countries as Boyko Borisov’s government decided to purchase mainly AstraZeneca vaccines opting to pass on some quotas from other vaccines available to Bulgaria in accordance to EU vaccines’ distribution mechanism.