Coronavirus positivity rate drops to 18%

1,919 is the number of newly-registered coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, or 18% of the 10,648 tests performed, data from the Single Coronavirus  Information Portal show.
The highest number of new infections is in Sofia - 481, Burgas – 256, in Varna – 216 and in Plovdiv - 161. 
10,521 coronavirus patients are being treated in hospital, of them 758 in intensive care. 69 have died bringing the death toll to 13,507.
3,484 have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries since the start of the epidemic to 269,575. The number of active cases is 69,177.
3,993 doses of Covid-19 vaccine were administered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 502,078.

Almost 15,000 people quarantined after 1 April will not be able to vote: Health Minister

“Almost 15,000 voters quarantined after 1 April will not be able to vote by mobile ballot box,”Health Minister Kostadin Angelov stated in Veliko Turnovo while waiting in line to vote himself.
He stated that a peak in the pandemic is not to be expected after the parliamentary election because the third wave of the pandemic in the country is beginning to subside.Minister Angelov urged the police and the health authorities to check whether there aren’t people who are under quarantine waiting in line in front of polling stations. With regard to the spread of Covid-19, Kodstadin Angelov stated that a frail tendency of a drop in the coronavirus positivity rate has been observed in past days.
There are a total of 283 mobile polling stations in the country, 46 of which for persons under quarantine, the Central Election Commission says.

OSCE observing elections in Bulgaria in compliance with pandemic measures

A mission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, is observing the polling stations in Sofia, Pernik, Kyustendil, Blagoevgrad, Troyan, Lovech and Varna. The head of the observation mission Corien Jonker told the BNR that it was too early to tell how the machine vote was going but that the mission would monitor the process with interest.
Artur Gerasymov from Ukraine stated that the Covid-19 pandemic was posing challenges to the mission, that is why their meetings before election day had been entirely online. All members have recently been tested for Covid-19, the protocols and safety measures are being observed in close cooperation with the members of the election commissions at polling places, added Senator Pascal Allizard from France.

More than 70% of medical staff have been vaccinated or have had coronavirus: Health Minister

“Bulgarian medical staff have already reached collective immunity against Covid-19 because more than 70% of them have been vaccinated or have had coronavirus,” Health Minister Prof. Kostadin Angelov stated in Varna.
He added that collective immunity will be reached by the entire population by the end of summer after the country receives additional quantities ofvaccine. “At the end of April all unvaccinated Bulgarians will be able to choose which vaccine to be inoculated with,” Minister Angelov said.

Compiled by Ivo Ivanov 

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