Sofia, Bulgaria: Around twenty-one members of Bulgaria’s National Assembly will be fined by the Sofia regional health inspectorate for not abiding by the COVID-19 health protocols. All these 21 members were not wearing masks when the regional health inspectorate checked the ‘National Assembly House’ on Thursday, February 3, 2022.  Â
The regional health inspectorate – RHI, cited that individuals who do not wear masks in indoor places will be fined worth 300 to 1000 leva (about 150 to 500 euro).Â
The whole “anti-vaxxer” Vuzrazhdane party will also face the consequences of getting fined, which is a 13 member smallest of the parliamentary groups. Along with them, 5 Members of Parliament (MPs) of GERB-UDF will also be fined for violating the COVID guidelines. Of these, two MPs are from Slavi Trifonov’s ITN party and the other one from the Democratic Bulgaria coalition. Â
The RHI furthermore noted that these MPs got the notice to appear at the RHI-Sofia so as to receive their acts of violation.Â
In addition, amid the rising rate of the COVID-19 infections, the district operational headquarters of Sofia decided to put in place some stringent, new COVID-19 guidelines. These new measures will come into effect from February 7, 2022, in the Sofia district and will remain for the time duration of 2 weeks.Â
Under these new measures, the restaurants in the district will not be able to operate more than 50% seating capacity, visits to the educational centres, art schools, and public events indoors and outdoors (where there will be mass gatherings) are suspended, and the educational institutions will operate in a rotation manner from online to the face-to-face classes. Â
Only emergency medical cases will be admitted to the hospital facilities in the Sofia district, as the planned admissions have been suspended by the regional healthcare agency. Â
Bulgaria is witnessing a rise in the daily infection count, whereas the vaccination coverage rate of the European nation is very low.Â