site.btaPresident Holds Working Meeting with Government Ministers on Likely COVID Surge
SC 17:09:01 06-08-2021
LN1708.115
115 - POLITICS - PRESIDENT - COVID - WORKING MEETING amplified
President Holds Working Meeting with
Government Ministers on
Likely COVID Surge
Sofia, August 6 (BTA) - President Rumen Radev held a working meeting with several members of the caretaker government to discuss the COVID situation and a possible new wave in infections. He commended caretaker Health Minister Stoycho Katsarov for his hard work and slammed the previous government for a chaotic and inadequate approach to the pandemic.
Prime Minister Stefan Yanev, the Health Minister, Finance Minister Assen Vassilev and Labour and Social Policy Minister Gulub Donev presented reports on various aspects of the COVID crisis.
The President said that it is important to have measures clearly planned as the experts are warning of a looming new wave of infections.
He also said that the meeting is not to discuss and decide on a new lockdown but to give the public information "because Bulgarian people have a right to know how the government is managing the crisis and what measures are planned".
Bulgaria was third in the EU and eighth in the world in terms of COVID mortality, Radev recalled.
Prime Minister Yanev said that the government is managing multiple crisis, referring also to the wildfire season in Bulgaria and its neighbours.
He argued that it is important to have flexible measures for businesses and the administration in a possible fourth wave in Bulgaria, and these should be set out in the pandemic management plan. "We should think twice when we lock down businesses because some may not reopen after that," he said.
Bulgaria to be in Orange Zone in 10 days
Statistical trends show that within 10 days Bulgaria will be in the orange zone for COVID which means more than 100 infected in 100,000 population on a 14-day basis. All necessary measures for that have been planned for the health system as well as a standard safety protocol, Health Minister Stoycho Katsarov said.
He said that it is hard to change the low level of vaccinations in Bulgaria, which he blamed on "a catastrophic start of the vaccination campaign" and contradictory messages which provided breeding ground for vaccine hesitancy that is so hard to change now.
"One satisfactory thing is that close to 70 per cent of the medics have had their jab and another is the relatively high share of vaccinated older people," Katsarov added.
He added that older people, unfortuinately, was not a priority group for vaccination in January and February, and that cost 10,000 lives.
Katsarov said that a budget revision should be approved as a matter of emergency by Parliament because the available funding for front-line workers and for the needs of the health system in a possible fourth wave, has been used up. The budget of the National Health Insurance Fund also needs to be revised because it is playing a key role in the processes.
The caretaker government has already drafted revisions of both budgets and put them forward for parliamentary approval.
Katsarov said he would be happy to see Parliament adopt as its own the pandemic management plan so that it is more than the Health Ministry plan and be embraced by all political parties to ensure political commitment.
Finance Minister Assen Vassilev reiterated the key parameters of the budgetary revisions. The national budget revision has an additional 1.6 billion leva in revenues from taxes and insurance contributions. 1.1 billion of it has already been collected and the government has no worries about the revenue side. The additional proceeds will finance all health measures, which are worth 335 million leva, and support for businesses for a total of 430 million leva.
He said that Parliament has the accept or not the proposed action plan and the budget for that. He urged the deputies to make their decision fast "because a delay by a month or two, or doing everything from scratch will put the next finance minister in a difficult situation". Also, he said that even if the budget is higher-than-planned, the government cannot use the money unles Parliament approves a budget revision.
He said that the Finance and Health Ministries have matched the ministries' action plans and budgets to the various epidemiologic scenarios. Also, they made sure all orders for COVID measures say clearly that if a business regularly tests its workers or has vaccinated them, it will be a allowed to continue operating during a possible lockdown.
Vaccination Too Low Among Teachers
Education Minister Nikolai Denkov said that the share of vaccinated teachers and school principals remains too low, at 30 and 40 per cent, respectively. He sid that over 130 educators died in 2020. Denkov said that an awareness campaign is been organized to encourage vaccination among educators.
The Education Ministry is preparing an action plan which will say how the education system will operate in various scenarios. By August 20 the plan will be discussed with the schools and the trade unions, and meetings with the local education authorities are scheduled for the last two days of August.
An Education Ministry analysis showed that the transition to online classes makes learning hard for a large part of children, especially those with low social status and uneducated parents. Part of the problem is that they donТt have tablets or smart phones to use for online schooling: there is a shortage of 43,000 such devices and the Ministries of Education and of Finance have now secured funding to purchase them. Another problem is that some 34,000 students donТt have access to Internet but arrangement are now also made to deal with that.
"It is very important for us to have in-person classes for as long as possible," said the Minister.
Tourism Minister Stela Baltova said that tourism is getting back to life and the ongoing season is "normal" with the numbers of foreign visitors reaching last year's levels. She called for predictability in the anti-COVID measures and especially the closing of businesses "because tourism involves hefty investment and also valuable human capital may be lost". RI/LN/
//
LN1708.115
115 - POLITICS - PRESIDENT - COVID - WORKING MEETING amplified
President Holds Working Meeting with
Government Ministers on
Likely COVID Surge
Sofia, August 6 (BTA) - President Rumen Radev held a working meeting with several members of the caretaker government to discuss the COVID situation and a possible new wave in infections. He commended caretaker Health Minister Stoycho Katsarov for his hard work and slammed the previous government for a chaotic and inadequate approach to the pandemic.
Prime Minister Stefan Yanev, the Health Minister, Finance Minister Assen Vassilev and Labour and Social Policy Minister Gulub Donev presented reports on various aspects of the COVID crisis.
The President said that it is important to have measures clearly planned as the experts are warning of a looming new wave of infections.
He also said that the meeting is not to discuss and decide on a new lockdown but to give the public information "because Bulgarian people have a right to know how the government is managing the crisis and what measures are planned".
Bulgaria was third in the EU and eighth in the world in terms of COVID mortality, Radev recalled.
Prime Minister Yanev said that the government is managing multiple crisis, referring also to the wildfire season in Bulgaria and its neighbours.
He argued that it is important to have flexible measures for businesses and the administration in a possible fourth wave in Bulgaria, and these should be set out in the pandemic management plan. "We should think twice when we lock down businesses because some may not reopen after that," he said.
Bulgaria to be in Orange Zone in 10 days
Statistical trends show that within 10 days Bulgaria will be in the orange zone for COVID which means more than 100 infected in 100,000 population on a 14-day basis. All necessary measures for that have been planned for the health system as well as a standard safety protocol, Health Minister Stoycho Katsarov said.
He said that it is hard to change the low level of vaccinations in Bulgaria, which he blamed on "a catastrophic start of the vaccination campaign" and contradictory messages which provided breeding ground for vaccine hesitancy that is so hard to change now.
"One satisfactory thing is that close to 70 per cent of the medics have had their jab and another is the relatively high share of vaccinated older people," Katsarov added.
He added that older people, unfortuinately, was not a priority group for vaccination in January and February, and that cost 10,000 lives.
Katsarov said that a budget revision should be approved as a matter of emergency by Parliament because the available funding for front-line workers and for the needs of the health system in a possible fourth wave, has been used up. The budget of the National Health Insurance Fund also needs to be revised because it is playing a key role in the processes.
The caretaker government has already drafted revisions of both budgets and put them forward for parliamentary approval.
Katsarov said he would be happy to see Parliament adopt as its own the pandemic management plan so that it is more than the Health Ministry plan and be embraced by all political parties to ensure political commitment.
Finance Minister Assen Vassilev reiterated the key parameters of the budgetary revisions. The national budget revision has an additional 1.6 billion leva in revenues from taxes and insurance contributions. 1.1 billion of it has already been collected and the government has no worries about the revenue side. The additional proceeds will finance all health measures, which are worth 335 million leva, and support for businesses for a total of 430 million leva.
He said that Parliament has the accept or not the proposed action plan and the budget for that. He urged the deputies to make their decision fast "because a delay by a month or two, or doing everything from scratch will put the next finance minister in a difficult situation". Also, he said that even if the budget is higher-than-planned, the government cannot use the money unles Parliament approves a budget revision.
He said that the Finance and Health Ministries have matched the ministries' action plans and budgets to the various epidemiologic scenarios. Also, they made sure all orders for COVID measures say clearly that if a business regularly tests its workers or has vaccinated them, it will be a allowed to continue operating during a possible lockdown.
Vaccination Too Low Among Teachers
Education Minister Nikolai Denkov said that the share of vaccinated teachers and school principals remains too low, at 30 and 40 per cent, respectively. He sid that over 130 educators died in 2020. Denkov said that an awareness campaign is been organized to encourage vaccination among educators.
The Education Ministry is preparing an action plan which will say how the education system will operate in various scenarios. By August 20 the plan will be discussed with the schools and the trade unions, and meetings with the local education authorities are scheduled for the last two days of August.
An Education Ministry analysis showed that the transition to online classes makes learning hard for a large part of children, especially those with low social status and uneducated parents. Part of the problem is that they donТt have tablets or smart phones to use for online schooling: there is a shortage of 43,000 such devices and the Ministries of Education and of Finance have now secured funding to purchase them. Another problem is that some 34,000 students donТt have access to Internet but arrangement are now also made to deal with that.
"It is very important for us to have in-person classes for as long as possible," said the Minister.
Tourism Minister Stela Baltova said that tourism is getting back to life and the ongoing season is "normal" with the numbers of foreign visitors reaching last year's levels. She called for predictability in the anti-COVID measures and especially the closing of businesses "because tourism involves hefty investment and also valuable human capital may be lost". RI/LN/
//
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