Bulgaria is struggling with another devastating wave of COVID-19 amid political change and rising inflation, according to a European Commission report. It was published today and is entitled “Development of social policy in Bulgaria”, BGNES reports.
COVID-19 mortality is the highest in the EU and second in the world, and the pandemic is increasing pressure on an already congested health system, the report said. However, he said, after parliament approved the new government after months of political stalemate, he hoped to better tackle the COVID-19 crisis in the coming months.
There is an urgent need in the country to improve the healthcare system.
According to data collected through Our World in Data (December 19, 2021), Bulgaria ranks first in the EU (second in the world) in the ranking of countries with the highest number of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 on one million people. The data are 6,062 / million people for Peru and 4,362 / million people in Bulgaria. The third country on the list, with more than 4,000 confirmed deaths per million, is Bosnia and Herzegovina (4,021); Hungary is in fourth place with 3,896 / million. Only 27.1% of the Bulgarian population is fully vaccinated (with two doses) against COVID-19, ie the lowest percentage in the EU. The second lowest is Romania (40.4%); the EU average is 68.6%.
“In addition to the pandemic, there has been a protracted political crisis in Bulgaria since three parliamentary elections were held in 2021 (in April, July and November). These political upheavals have led to much lighter public measures against the spread of COVID-19. The caretaker government introduced a “green certificate” in Bulgaria on October 25, 2021, later than in any other EU country, the EC report continued.
“Given that Bulgaria, along with Latvia and France, forms the group of most vaccine-skeptical countries in the EU, according to an EU report from 2018, anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and misinformation have found fertile ground in the country. Therefore, no It is a surprise that Vazrazhdane, one of the political parties that led protests against what they called “medical fascism” on green certificates, “successfully crossed the electoral threshold to enter parliament in November 2021,” the EC said.
According to the report, Bulgaria has failed to carry out significant healthcare reforms for decades. The main problems are the mass emigration of doctors and nurses, the high average age of those who remain at work, chronic shortages of hospital funding, poor access to health care for the rural population and minorities, underdeveloped outpatient care, high out-of-pocket payments, high level of dissatisfaction with medical services and a high number of deaths from preventable and treatable causes.
“The situation described above puts pressure on the already heavily burdened healthcare system. The pandemic situation in Bulgaria is likely to worsen further in the winter, with continued high levels of COVID-19, high mortality and low vaccination. Before these In order to solve long-term problems, clear and unambiguous measures are needed to tackle COVID-19 in the short term, including new information in support of the vaccination campaign that adequately addresses the precise concerns of the unvaccinated majority. “
According to him, it is positive that the four political parties in the new Bulgarian parliament have reached a coalition agreement, which includes overcoming the crisis with COVID-19 as a top priority.
“It remains to be seen what concrete steps the new government will take in the next few months,” the EC report concluded.
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