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Bulgaria has requested EU assistance for the expansion of COVID resuscitation – Europe


© Associated Press


The Bulgarian government has asked the EU for help in providing additional equipment for patients with COVID-19 in serious condition. The European Commission announced on Wednesday that the request for assistance arrived on Tuesday, with which Bulgaria triggered the so-called Civil Protection Mechanism – a tool for mutual assistance in natural disasters, industrial accidents and other emergencies.

In it, Sofia is looking for a “significant amount” of breathing apparatus, monitors for monitoring the vital signs of patients, resuscitation beds and oxygen masks, said a spokesman for the European Commission.

Brussels now has to send the request to the other countries to check if anyone has free funds that they can temporarily transfer to Bulgaria.

According to official data, there are currently 747 patients in the intensive care units in the country out of a total of 8526 hospitalized. During the last 24 hours, 1,014 new patients with COVID-19 were admitted to hospitals. 91% of newcomers have not been vaccinated against coronavirus infection.

Bulgaria is the third European country to seek help in recent weeks to deal with a critical situation related to COVID-19. Earlier, this was done by Romania and Latvia – the other two European countries, where the level of vaccinated against COVID-19 is much lower than the European average.

Two weeks ago, Romania requested additional medical teams to help care for critically ill patients and sent patients for treatment to Hungary, Poland and Austria to other European countries that could not be covered by the health system. Doctors from Poland, Denmark and Moldova were seconded to Romanian emergency departments.

A total of nine countries sent aid to Romania, including for the first time Serbia, which supplied 170 oxygen concentrators and 6,365 doses of monoclonal antibodies. From antibody cocktails for the treatment of seriously ill patients, Romania also received quantities from Italy, France, Austria, Germany and Slovakia, and Poland twice sent oxygen concentrators and respirators. Breathing machines were supplied by Denmark and France.

Earlier this month, Latvia received special equipment from the Netherlands, Finland, Hungary and Sweden after asking the EU for more than 130 breathing apparatus and hundreds of vital signs, BNS reported. The country has some of the worst mortality rates and a record number of people in intensive care units during the pandemic. Hospitals in Riga have re-equipped corridors and garages for ambulances in COVID-19 wards. “In peacetime, no country has the capacity to deal with such a crisis,” Health Minister Daniels Pavluts wrote, thanking for foreign aid.

The largest shipment of 80 ventilators was sent to Sweden. Latvia is also considering asking the EU for help from foreign medical staff, national television reported. 53.6% are fully vaccinated there – more than twice as many as in Bulgaria. Latvian prosecutors are investigating 20 doctors suspected of selling 500 euros each on fake certificates.

In both actions for European solidarity from the fourth wave, Bulgaria did not participate, as it was one of the first countries in the EU to be severely affected by the jump in infections.

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