Bulgaria does not plan mass testing for students in class with a positive coronavirus case

Chief Health Inspector Dr. Angel Kounchev announced to the Bulgarian National Radio yesterday that the country does not plan to mass test the classmates of a student, who has tested positive for the coronavirus. Testing the whole class in case of a confirmed case "will not give any advantages", Dr. Kounchev said.

"We do not plan on mass screening [in such instances]. [Mass screening] does not have any prophylactic value. What we would get is the picture at that point in time, but that could become drastically different two days later", he explained.

Instead the students will be put under a 14-day quarantine and switch to online classes for that period.

Parents on the other hand may choose for their children to stay home and study online only in certain cases. Dr. Kounchev explained the schools will receive guidelines from the National Council of Pediatrics listing for example certain underlining conditions, which would allow for a child to learn from home.

Dr. Kounchev also informed that the import of flu vaccines will be late this year due to the higher global demand. The country expects about 180’000 doses to be distributed for free among senior citizens and the same amount – to be available on the market.

He pointed out that the last week has marked a relatively positive trend but it is yet unclear whether it will prove stable.

As of August 21, the number of people, who have recovered from the coronavirus again exceeds the new daily cases. 156 people have cleared the virus from their system over the past 24 hours, while 142 is the number of newly confirmed positive infections. The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country since the beginning of the outbreak is nearing 15’000. 4343 are the currently active cases. 766 patients with COVID-19 are treated in hospitals, 63 are in ICUs.