Bulgaria’s PM Orders Suspension of AstraZeneca Vaccine

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov ordered the immunizations with the AstraZeneca vaccine to be suspended, until the European Medicines Agency assuages all doubts about its safety by written statement.

This became clear at a working meeting convened by the Prime Minister, at which Minister of Health Kostadin Angelov and Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Valchev reported that increasingly more children and students are falling ill with COVID-19 and seek help in medical institutions, the government information service reported.

In the framework of the working meeting, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov requested within a few days a plan to determine the criteria for the health requirements to tourists who will visit Bulgaria in the new summer season. Prime Minister Borissov added that funds have also been provided for further government anti-crisis measures, such as payrollsupport programs 60/40, 75/0, 80/20 by the end of May inclusive. Until then, aid for parents looking after children studying online is also guaranteed.

"Until a written report from the European Medicines Agency has come with a precise and clearly confirmed decision on the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine, you should stop it," Prime Minister Borissov said. The Prime Minister reminded that the contracts with vaccine manufacturers were concluded by the European Commission and approved by the European Medicines Agency. "We, the Member States, are only final consumers," Borissov added.

During the working meeting, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov pointed out that late last night several countries stopped immunization with the AstraZeneca vaccine on their territories. Angelov declared readiness to issue an order on temporary suspension of the Oxford vaccine application in Bulgaria until all probes are carried out by the Bulgarian Drugs Agency and the European Medicines Agency.

The health minister also reported that there were more than 15,000 vaccinated people yesterday, and vaccination continues today.

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