The first 9,750 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Bulgaria early Saturday morning. They are enough for nearly 5,000 people, as the vaccine is given twice every 21 days. The immunization starts on Sunday, and the first cities where this will happen are Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas. Vaccines will be given first to first-line medical personnel, with Health Minister Kostadin Angelov announcing that he will be the first Bulgarian to be vaccinated.
The vaccines are currently in the freezer at the Bull Bio building, from where they will be distributed by region. At the beginning of next week they will also be delivered to Vratsa and Veliko Tarnovo. Along with the vaccines, information materials have arrived, which are aimed at both doctors and patients, so that all Bulgarian citizens can be informed about the nature of the vaccines and the entire process of immunization, the Ministry of Health announced.
According to the Minister of Health, the number of those wishing to be vaccinated is growing, as more and more doctors and nurses want to get involved in the first phase. "We are optimistic that if we continue to present all the information regarding vaccines and the need for them, we will achieve the desired result - 70% of vaccinated Bulgarians," Angelov said. Immunization against COVID-19 is recommended and free and is optional. Additional shipments of vaccines are expected in January, when the number should reach 62,500 doses.
Meanwhile, the data from the Unified Information Portal show that 12.4% of the tests performed for coronavirus in the last 24 hours in our country are positive. The new cases are 257 out of a total of 2072 PCR and antigen tests. The death toll for the past 24 hours is 50, and 1186 people have been healed. 5,580 patients remain in hospitals, including 512 in intensive care units.
