Bulgaria is facing a fourth wave of Coronavirus which is overwhelming its hospital system.

The Minister of Health Stoycho Katsarov warned on the channel Nova TV that if the contaminations curve did not reduce within 10 to 15 days, there would be "enormous problems".

Despite the establishment of a health pass in places such as restaurants and shopping centers, experts report that the current wave could cause up to 5,000 to 9,000 contaminations per day within two weeks, in this country of 6 , 9 million inhabitants.

"Our capacity in terms of manpower and ventilators is almost exhausted, we will have to seek help abroad", he warned.

Concretely, Bulgaria is considering "transferring patients to other countries".

"Discussions are underway with the EU if this were to come to this," said Stoycho Katsarov.

The minister added that a new confinement was not excluded.

Romania on the verge of following in Bulgaria's footsteps

Bulgaria and Romania have the lowest vaccination rates in the EU, held back by the spread of conspiracy theories and people's mistrust of the authorities.

Only 24% of Bulgarians and 33% of Romanians have completed a full vaccination course.

Romania, a country of 19 million inhabitants, has recorded 1.5 million cases, with 15,000 new infections identified on Saturday.

The government is thus strengthening measures to fight the epidemic, by making the mask compulsory throughout the country from Monday and by banning events such as weddings for 30 days.

At the same time, sports halls, shopping centers and restaurants will have to require the health pass and unvaccinated people will have to respect a curfew at 10 p.m.

A late acceleration of vaccination

So many measures that could be at the origin of an acceleration of vaccination, observed recently in the two countries.

The Romanian government announced on Friday that 130,000 people had visited a vaccination center in the past 24 hours, including a record 86,000 people receiving their first injection.

Bulgarian vaccination centers have also reported an increase in attendance after the implementation of the health pass announced on Thursday, with three times more people receiving the injection on Friday compared to the previous week.

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