Bulgaria claims 10,000 deaths due to mistakes in vaccination strategy

Bulgaria made several serious mistakes in organizing the vaccination campaign of the population against COVID-19 , which led to the death of about 10 thousand people. This was stated by Minister of Health Stoycho Katsarov, Trud newspaper reports.

The first of these is related to negotiations on the purchase of vaccines. At the initial stage of vaccination, Bulgaria preferred the drug from the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca to the detriment of other vaccines approved by the European regulator. Due to delays in supplies, only 200,000 residents received the first dose of the vaccine by the end of February.

As the second mistake in the vaccination program, Katsarov called the lack of priority for the most vulnerable group - people over 60 and those with chronic diseases. “More than 80% of COVID-19 deaths occur in people over 60 years of age. Therefore, in all countries except Bulgaria, priority is given to the elderly,” the minister said, adding that vaccination of the elderly helps to reduce the spread of the virus and reduce mortality.

According to Katsarov, the third mistake is poor logistics. He added that the gaps in the vaccination campaign are understandable, but they need to be corrected in a timely manner. “Bulgaria has sacrificed the older generation. For five months, we vaccinated mostly young and active people. <...> The process of protecting the most vulnerable groups was completely stopped,” the minister believes.