Sofia announced, Saturday, to be about to send patients abroad, while the Bulgarian hospital system is overwhelmed by a fourth wave.
Le Monde
Faced with the virulence of the Cvid-19 epidemic that strikes the country, Bulgaria is preparing to entrust its patients to other countries, announced the Ministry of Health, Saturday, October 23. The country is particularly affected by a fourth wave while the vaccine coverage remains low.
The pandemic has made more than 4.9 million deaths in the world since the Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) in China reported on the appearance of SARS-COV-2, responsible of COVID-19 end of December 2019, according to a balance sheet established by the France-Press agency (AFP) from official sources on Friday.
The United States is the most affected country both in the number of deaths and cases, with more than 735,000 deaths for more than 45 million cases identified, depending on the count of Johns-Hopkins University on Sunday. Follow-up of Brazil, which has more than 605,000 deaths due to COVID-19.
Submerged Bulgaria
The rise in COVID-19 cases in Buglalaria overwhelms the hospital system. “Our capacity in terms of numbers and fans is almost exhausted, we will have to look for help abroad,” alerted Stoycho Katsarov’s Health Minister Stoycho Katsarov on the Nova TV channel, if the curve of contamination does not was not reduced by ten to fifteen days. “Discussions are ongoing with the EU [European Union] to transfer patients to other countries, if we had to get there.” The minister added that a new confinement was not excluded. Neighboring Romania has noted its sanitary restrictions.
Despite the setting up in Bulgaria of a sanitary pass in places such as restaurants and shopping centers, experts report that the current wave could lead to up to 5,000 to 9,000 contaminations per day by two weeks, in this country of 6.9 million inhabitants.
Bulgaria is one of the countries with the lowest vaccination rate of the EU, slowed by the dissemination of compotive theories and the mistrust of the populations to the authorities. Only 24% of Bulgarians are totally vaccinated.
Rising cases in Germany
The seven-day incidence rate has reached, on Saturday, 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, for the first time since May, confirming a recrudescence of the pandemic. This indicator has thus found little or prro the level known on May 13, when it displayed the value 104, falling the next day at 97.
This rate of 100 cases per 100,000 population has long been considered in Germany as the threshold from which strict containment must be triggered but the German Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, wanted reassuring Saturday about it Believing that the country was better armed with the disease through vaccination. However, he suggested that certain rules of distancing as the port of the mask or the limitation of indoor activities for non-vaccinated persons would remain in effect until spring.
Contaminations at the highest in Russia
Russia recorded Saturday’s more than 1,075 people of COVID-19 and 37,600 infections in the last twenty-four hours, on the highest figures for the third consecutive day, a sign of the violence of the epidemic wave that strikes the country. Barely one third of the Russians have been immunized since the appearance of the first national vaccine, the Sputnik V, in December 2020. A failure that can be explained in particular by the traditional mistrust of the population with regard to the authorities.
Vietnam reopens the island of Phu Quoc in November
Vietnam plans to reopen the island of Phu Quoc to foreign visitors vaccinated at the end of November, according to the authorities, while the country seeks to revive its tourism industry after almost two years of closure. From November 20, “Charters’ flights” for international travelers with vaccine passports will return to the island. Between the end of December and the end of March, Phu Quoc hopes to accommodate up to 5,000 foreigners on similar charter flights. Tourists will have to present vaccination certificates as well as a negative result at COVID-19 test before being allowed to enter.