COVID-19 vaccination in Bulgaria

People who have received their COVID-19 vaccine should eat tomatoes and drink more tomato juice as it is a natural remedy against blood clotting, the director of the Bulgarian National Center for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Professor Todor Kantardzhiev, said on Wednesday.

"In the last 14 days there has been a marked increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases, we are now at the highest point of the morbidity peak, the third in a row for the country. However, already there are one million people in Bulgaria - vaccinated or healed who have immunity, this gives us grounds to gradually ease the restrictive measures from today.

Bulgaria will ease some of its measures against the spread of Covid-19 from April 1, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov told a briefing on March 30.

Currently, heightened measures that came into effect on March 22 are due to expire on March 31.

"Although the number of coronavirus patients in hospital is higher than during the previous wave of coronavirus the hospital system is able to handle the surge," Health Minister Kostadin Angelov declared at a working meeting of the Council of Ministers.

Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev is expecting the peak of coronavirus infections to be reached this or next week.

The President of Serbia told Financial Times that a potential restriction on the export of vaccines from the European Union could jeopardize the vaccination process in Serbia.

"Serbia has managed to avoid the worst scenarios, similar to those you can see in some other countries. On the other hand, mass vaccination, which placed Serbian among top two countries in Europe, gives its results, and I use this opportunity to invite all citizens to get vaccinated ", stated Mali.

More than half of the citizens of North Macedonia, 55 per cent, said they would be unlikely to get a COVID-19 vaccination if it was offered to them, a survey carried out by the London-based think tank, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, ISD, says.

"The vaccination site at St. Joanna - ISUL University Hospital will be open from today between 14-17 hours and on March 27th and 28th March 2021 from 8:30 to 16.30. The available vaccine is AstraZeneca. No advance appointment is required," the hospital's  press office reported.

Bulgaria will have to make some extraordinary effort in the coming months if it wants to protect its population from the coronavirus through vaccination.

 Current data show that Boyko Borissov's government has bought such a small number of doses that no more than 36% of Bulgarians could receive two doses at the end of June.

Serbia, champion of the vaccination process in the Balkans, has donated thousands of jabs to its neighbours, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Montenegro.

Albania recently started doing the same, helping Kosovo, the only country in the region that did not start its vaccination process at all.