Bulgarian Professor: Next Week We will Reach the Peak of the Fifth Covid Wave

Society » HEALTH | January 30, 2022, Sunday // 12:01
Bulgaria: Bulgarian Professor: Next Week We will Reach the Peak of the Fifth Covid Wave BNR

“We have been climbing the fifth wave of Covid all week and we have no reason to be optimistic. I think we will reach a peak next week - maybe by Tuesday, Wednesday we will have 15,000 infected a day, after which there will be a decline.” This was said to BNR by Prof. Penka Petrova, director of the Institute of Microbiology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

She pointed out that scientific data show that Omicron is about 2 times less deadly than the Delta variant, but the mortality rate in Bulgaria is not lower and stressed that this is due to the lower level of vaccination:

“Currently we have a mortality rate equal to that of the United Kingdom, which is 68 million people. The difference is mainly due to vaccination. If our population had reached the level of the English, we would have relaxed the measures.”

Bulgaria has reached 33,000 deaths from Covid-19, and a 120 million Japan has 18,000 deaths

“Unfortunately, our country has reached the first places in the world in the number of deaths per capita.”

According to Prof. Petrova, Omicron may be the latest variant of the pandemic but predicts that an even more contagious but milder version may emerge. She cites scientists who say Omicron can be defined as a natural vaccine:

“In any case, Covid-19 is leaving,” she said.

RNA vaccines are a leap in technology. According to statistics from the American Institute of Health Statistics in Seattle, a population immunized with two doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is protected 73% from severe disease and 44 to 48% of infection. The booster dose again protects 97% of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, explained Prof. Penka Petrova.

The professor of microbiology expressed expectation that the protein vaccine of Novavax, which is a classic technology, will be imported to Bulgaria, and suggested that skeptics should not mind being immunized with it.

Bulgaria has Refused to Supply the Fifth Approved COVID Vaccine

In the first days after infection, the Omicron variant may not be detected by a rapid antigen test, but it can be detected by PCR, she said.

Prof. Petrov announced that the vaccine, developed by a team of Prof. Andrey Chorbanov, is a ready prototype, but “years of testing and many millions of funds” are forthcoming.

/BNR

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Tags: omicron, vaccine, COVID-19

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