Bulgaria's vaccination authorities hold emergency meeting over AstraZeneca EMA position

Bulgaria's National Vaccination Staff met at an extraordinary meeting at the request of the Minister of Health Prof. Kostadin Angelov. 

This happened after the European Medicines Agency announced today its position on the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. It states that there is a "possible link" between AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, developed in collaboration with Oxford University, and "very rare cases of abnormal blood clots" in people who have been vaccinated.

Later today, Angelov will take part in an extraordinary videoconference meeting of EU health ministers, the topic of which are vaccines against Covid-19.

“The coronavirus has painfully revealed the shortcomings of the system – inequality of access to medical services and imbalances in the distribution of human and financial resources,” President Rumen Radev stated in his speech to the medical workers awarded the presidential badge of honour on World Health Day. 

President Radev added that the numerous human lives lost have made insufferable the negligence of the fact that the system is terminally ill when it comes to prevention of major diseases.

“It has been common knowledge for a long time that the healthcare system needs to be cured,” the Bulgarian head of state said and added that its guiding principle ought to be the right to health and not an appetite for profiting from disease.

On the occasion of World Health Day Rumen Radev conferred the presidential badge of honour on 15 prominent doctors and healthcare specialists. 

"I am sure that the new government will continue to support health workers in the same way as before," Prime Minister Boyko Borissov wrote on his Facebook page on the occasion of the professional holiday of medics in Bulgaria.

"They have shown a lot of humanness and professionalism, working without a day off in the past year and we grieve for those who lost the battle against the disease," he said. According to the Prime Minister, vaccination has been making good progress and we would soon overcome the coronovirus. "Sufficient protective equipment, vaccines and medicines have been provided. The workers on the front line receive additional 500 euros to their salaries," Boyko Borissov also wrote.

The government has allocated EUR 23.5 million euros for the purchase of additional quantities of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer/Biontech, the government's press service reports. The money will be enough for 1,533,037 doses of the vaccine.

Another decision of the cabinet states that conditions would be created for the payment of the additional remuneration of 500 euros for the medical and non-medical staff in the Covid wards, as well as for vaccination against coronavirus in case of possible extension of the epidemic situation after April 30.

There is an increasing number of young people in the Covid-19 wards and intensive care wards of hospitals and one of the reasons is that they seek medical help too late, Prof. Radka Argirova, chair of the Bulgarian Association for Medical Virology has told Nova TV.

She added that people in serious condition come every day and called on patients who experience shortness of breath to seek medical help immediately. According to the virologist, there might be a slight rise in new cases of coronavirus infection after the elections. Prof. Radka Argirova also said that the number of newly infected continues to be high and the decline seen during weekends was a matter of statistics. Vaccination for hospital and social workers should be mandatory, she added.

Life expectancy in Bulgaria has fallen by -1.5 years to 73.6 years in the pandemic year 2020, Eurostat data show, quoted by bTV. For comparison, in 2019 life expectancy in Bulgaria was 75.1 years. 

According to statistics, negative trends are observed in most EU countries. 

The only country in which the situation is worse than in Bulgaria in this indicator is Spain, where the decrease is -1.6 compared to 2019, but up to 82.4 years.