Bulgaria Health Minister Under Fire Over Handling of Pandemic

While Bulgarian medics continue to demand payment of promised monthly bonuses for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, Health Minister Kiril Ananiev has also faced criticism for saying wearing protective masks should be made mandatory - when there is still an acute shortage of such masks.

On Friday, Ananiev assured doctors and medical workers who are working on the front line to prevent the spread of COVID-19 that they will receive their promised bonus of 1,000 levs, equal to around 511 euros, in addition to their monthly salaries.

The pledge came after doctors complained that they had not been compensated so far, despite earlier promises.

However, as the website dnevnik.bg noted, more in this field remains to be done since the promised bonuses are only for specialists - not for all the other medical staff working in hospital administration, or in taking care of patients and their wellbeing.

Frustrated doctors also point out that while the testing of members of parliament was quickly organised after the first coronavirus case was found among them, no such tests are widely available for doctors, even when they appear to have been exposed to the virus.

"Nearly 8,000 medics have been living for a whole month with the fear of transmitting the contagion on a daily basis. However, emergency physicians have not been tested, or in any way compensated for the risks they take during their work," doctor, Desislava Katelieva, from the Association of Doctors in Bulgaria, complained in a statement released on Thursday.

The row over the unpaid bonuses for doctors comes after the minister made waves of March 30 by saying that the wearing of protective face masks should be made mandatory for all citizens - despite them still not being...