Bulgaria: EU green certificates to be valid till 270 days, from Feb 1

According to the latest information by the Bulgaria’s Health Ministry, from February 1, all the European green certificates, issued after the completion of the vaccination against Covid-19, will only be valid for 270 days from the date of the last dose.

The ministry further notified that the change had been adjoined after the European Commission introduced new changes in the policies about the validity of the vaccine certificates, in December, and Bulgaria maintained the uniformity of rules for EU countries.

This change would cover the green certificates allotted after the administration of the single-dose as well as double-dose vaccines, approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The State Health Ministry further assured that the issued EU green certificates would be valid, and the citizens didn’t need to re-issue them until the new deadlines. It further said that the validity would be monitored with the help of a mobile application, named “COVID CHECK BG”.

However, just a few days before, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, in a press conference, mentioned that the government has been discussing to remove the green certificate requirement in the country as about 60 percent of the country’s population has not taken the second dose of vaccination.

At that time, Mr Petkov said that we had not reached the final decision; it was just a proposal that would be discussed in the upcoming days.

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control statics, among the total Bulgarian population, as many as 28.5 percent have received the complete vaccination, till January 21. This is the lowest in the European Union nations.

The vaccination drive commenced in the country on December 27, 2020, just less than 13 months ago.

In a significant health development in the nation, the health ministry recently announced that it had approved the contracts with nine Covid-19 test suppliers for 7.61 million schools worth 15, 518, 628 leva.