About 2Mln Bulgarians To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine By End Of Year - Health Minister

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2021) Nearly 2 million people in Bulgaria are expected to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus this year, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said on Friday.

"Until the end of the year, Bulgaria will have enough [doses] of the vaccine ...Bulgaria will receive about 3.9 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and some 2 million Bulgarians will be vaccinated," Angelov said while addressing the parliament, as cited by the BTV broadcaster.

The minister added that Bulgaria was participating in six preliminary agreements on the purchase of over 13 million doses of vaccines against the coronavirus, which would be enough to vaccinate the country's entire population.

At the same time, if more doses are needed, the Bulgarian Ministry of Health is ready to purchase the vaccine outside the European Union, the official said.

According to Angelov, the authorities are currently taking actions to organize a large immunization campaign.

A mass vaccination campaign with the use of the Pfizer vaccine in Bulgaria, as elsewhere within the EU, was launched on December 27. In addition to that, Bulgaria received the first batch of Moderna's vaccine last week. So far, 25,251 people have received shots.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Bulgaria has confirmed nearly 214,000 cases of the coronavirus, including over 177,300 recoveries and 8,741 fatalities.