Health Minister of Bulgaria Kiryl Ananiev proposed a bill for the extension of the state of emergency in the country until July 15 during a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday.
“The bill is not solely based on the data from recent days but also on a deep analysis of the weekly and monthly progression of the disease. This approach is adopted by all European countries and is recommended by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.”
Ananiev commented on the epidemiological data from the past 4 weeks separating them into two periods of two weeks.
“For the period after June 9, there is a significant increase in the cases of people infected or carrying the virus. For example, in the period between May 27 and June 9, the daily average number of people infected was 26, whereas for the period between June 10 and June 23 the number rose to an average of 54 infections per day accounting for 3.2 fold increase in COVID spread.”
“Over the past few weeks and months, there was an increase in testing with 36 new labs being established at local medical facilities and regional health inspections. Over the first period, an average of 1,200 people have been tested daily, with the number raising to about 2,000 people during the second period.”
Ananiev said that there is also an increase in the number of infected medical workers who have reached a total of 371 people.
In regards to the general conclusions of the Health Ministry’s analysis of the epidemiologic situation in the country Ananiev commented:
“The cause of the pandemic is a virus with unidentified origin and unclear contagiousness. So far, there is no evidence for effective post-infection immunity among recovered COVID patients. COVID-19 remains a serious threat to public health given the asymptomatic carriers of the virus. Treatment and vaccine for coronavirus are still underway.”
During the reinstitution of the state of emergency, no severe new or old restrictions will be put in place, stressed Ananiev. He said that the bill is relying on the already familiar measures such as closing the borders to certain highrisk countries, maintaining high levels of hygiene, imposing social distance of at least 1,5 m, public disinfection, wearing of protective masks in closed public spaces, encouraging of home office employment, and restriction of public events. The control is expected to be tightened.
PM Boyko Borissov said that democracy is for disciplined people. He warned that if the measures are not strictly followed football stadiums and clubs will be closed.
