Amid spike in cases, Bulgaria makes COVID-19 test mandatory for all incoming travelers

Bulgaria has made it mandatory for passengers to take COVID-19 tests after arriving in the country, including for those coming from European nations. Bulgarian Health Minister Kostadin Angelov on Monday said that the new measure has been put in place to protect the people and the country from the COVID-19 disease, which continues to rage havoc across the world, including in Europe. Bulgaria has announced that all travellers will be required to take COVID-19 tests after arriving in the country.

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"Today we will take measures to issue a decree according to which all citizens arriving in Bulgaria, including those from the EU countries, will have to take a coronavirus test. This way, we want to protect the country and our citizens from the threat of the new COVID-19 strain," Angelov said in a statement on Monday. 

This comes after the European Commission proposed member states made it mandatory for all non-EU travellers to take COVID-19 tests before arriving in the region and also introduced self-isolation and quarantine measures. The Commission also proposed to ban all non-essential travel within the EU. 

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Vaccination in Bulgaria

The country of 7 million people intends to vaccinate at least 2 million of its citizens in 2021. The country has already vaccinated more than 26,000 people since December 27, when the inoculation drive began across Europe. According to reports, Bulgaria is in talks with pharmaceutical companies to purchase 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which would be enough to vaccinate its entire population. 

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The Balkan nation has recorded more than 2,15,000 COVID-19 infections so far, of which over 8,800 people have lost their lives. The daily rate of new COVID-19 cases in Bulgaria has registered a steep decline as compared to November last year when the country had recorded its highest single-day jump with more than 3,000 cases. On January 24, Bulgaria reported just 121 new cases. 

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(With inputs from ANI, Image Credit: AP)