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The measures against the spread of COVID-19 in our country remain in force for Christmas and New Years. The relief announced as of December 21 will not take place.
In a meeting with the Prime Minister, the National Operations Headquarters and Health Minister Kostadin Angelov proposed that the partial closure remain in effect after the expiration of the Minister’s current order.
The health authorities propose an extension until January 31, with some exceptions.
The following exceptions are proposed:
- allow students in grades 1-4 to begin attending school on January 4 of next year, as well as the opening of kindergartens and day care centers;
- as of January 1 to open galleries, museums, cinemas and theaters that are not closed, operating at 30% of their capacity and by means of a seat;
- allowing hotel dining rooms to function with up to 50% occupancy only for hotel guests with a set night time until 10 pm.
Prime Minister Boyko Borissov pointed out that the extension of the measures until January 31, 2021 will cost another 250 million BGN in compensation.
According to the Minister of Health, the reason for the extension of the restrictions is the record mortality of those infected by coronavirus.
Bulgaria retains its place in terms of morbidity in the EU, it continues to occupy the tenth and eleventh position, and in terms of mortality our country occupies the first place.
The headquarters suggested that if the number of infected decreased, the measures would be weakened.
“The proposal for the extension of the measures is very balanced, so we will strengthen the fragile trend to reduce COVID-19 cases, and after the holidays we will discuss the possibility of further mitigating the measures,” said the chief inspector of State Health, Ángel Kunchev.
“Get together the managers of the big chain stores now and tell them, if they want to follow the measures like in Austria and Germany, if not, to get mad at themselves,” the prime minister said.
The Association of Hoteliers and Restaurateurs described the measures as reasonable. But they expect the promised help in no time.
And the industry, focused only on restaurants, is adamant that small and medium-sized businesses are sinking at the expense of large ones.
The health authorities report that there is a result of the introduction of the measures and there are no more districts with more than 1000 patients per 100 thousand inhabitants.
The president of the National Institute of Statistics (INE) has proposed to postpone the start of the census due to the epidemic. It is scheduled to begin on January 22, 2021.
