Gallup International Balkan: One-Third of Bulgarian Have Already Had Covid-19

A large number of Bulgarians seem to have already been exposed to COVID-19 and recovered. That's according to opinion polls by Gallup International Balkan.

The data are from an independent face-to-face survey, part of the agency's regular program. The survey was conducted 4-12 February among 1,011 adult Bulgarians across the country.

Gallup said the agency has made numerous research in cycles that capture the dynamics and intensity of the disease spread, and this warrants important quantitative assessments. The data presented by epidemiologists and pandemic task force are based on proven and recorded cases, but as is well known, many had the disease in mild form do not take a test or make the so-called ‘rapid test’ at home and do not register at a medical institution in case of a positive result.

Apart from that, there are also many cases of almost asymptomatic illness, when people find it difficult to say for sure that they are ill. It is for these reasons that demoscopy is very helpful, especially with a relatively low testing rate in the country.

Of adult Bulgarians 16% declare that they have had the disease – in a mild or severe form. This amounts to over 800,000 adult Bulgarians living permanently in the country with no more than 5.2 million adult population.

Research analyses show that at least as many are who have passed the disease asymptomatically or simply have not reported it to the health authorities. This means that in final estimation at least nearly 1.5 million people are those who have been exposed to the virus.

That is, we are talking about nearly a third of the adult Bulgarian population, permanently residing in Bulgaria. Most likely, the spread of the disease among minors is proportional.

One in 10 people who have a history of illness themselves defines their case as relatively severe, which also correlates with medical statistics.

The people of the younger age groups, respectively in Sofia and the larger cities have had a mild case of covid-19 most often. Conversely, the lowest morbidity rate is registered among adults (over 65) and in rural. The data is expected on the background of the official information published in our country, according to Gallup.

Also close to a third - 27% report high vaccination intent and are sure they would get vaccinated vs. 48% who would not. However, there are 24% hesitant. There are also about 1% who claim to have already been vaccinated, which agrees with the official data at the time of the survey.

Besides, data from the large-scale international comparative study on vaccination intent in the world by the global Gallup International Association showed that by these indicators Bulgaria is on average in Europe and seems close in results to many other Eastern European countries, i.e. far from a flat denial of vaccines.

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