Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

The Day of Aviation and Cosmonautics - April 12, will be celebrated in a number of cities across Bulgaria with a series of events.

"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.

"I do not believe that Omicron will end the pandemic. New variants of the virus are constantly appearing. The mutation of the virus is a normal biological process. For every virus - not just this one. There will be many other mutations. The question is not whether the pandemic with Omicron will disappear, but what measures will be taken.

"Since the virus has not entered the country by St. Nicholas Day, it does not have time to enter and become dominant until Christmas and New Year. However, it needs some time, when the virus enters the country, to run wild and replace the current variant, which is aggressive enough and will not be given so easily. It will take 2-3 weeks." This is what the mathematician Prof.

Omicron is a new variant of the coronavirus that could restart the pandemic as it was in the beginning. This will happen if the risk is not managed and no action is taken. We need to manage risk and act as a community. The head of the laboratory for brain infections in Bern, Dr. Asparuh Iliev, the director of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Prof.

The virus continues to change, the new variant attracts attention with its large number of mutations - over 32, for comparison the Delta variant has only 16. It is located in the spike, it can run away from the immune response, neutralizing antibodies are directed against the spike. This should not cause panic. This was stated in "The Day Begins" by Prof.

The most adequate move at the moment is a lockdown for unvaccinated elderly people, as they did in Russia. The most vulnerable part of the population should go home, not communicate, not ride public transport, where the disease is most common. A total lockdown of the state will be catastrophic for many businesses, for education.

The development of the first prototype of the Bulgarian vaccine against COVID-19 will be presented today by Prof. Andrey Chorbanov at a scientific forum. This is the World Congress of Vaccines, in which Prof. Chorbanov will participate online with a report to present the first prototype of the Bulgarian vaccine, funded by the Pasteur Institute - Paris, said in an interview with BTA Prof.

"The data on coronavirus mortality in our country is alarming - there are over 70 deaths a day. We must now be convinced that this is a deadly disease ... This must show that everyone who is still hesitant must be vaccinated. "

Today the clouds will be significant and in many places in Western and Central Bulgaria it will rain. A light to moderate wind from the east-northeast will blow and cool air will continue to penetrate with it.