Epidemiologist: Restrictive Measures Should Be Restored before It is Too Late

"We are seeing a steady increase in the coronavirus incidence rate. Undoubtedly, the British strain is one of the reasons for this, but the return of school students to classes has also contributed to it. At the moment we witness a steep rise. In my opinion, we should think about restoring the measures before it is too late," Dr. Petar Markov, an epidemiologist and lecturer at the London School of Tropical Medicine, said on air of Hello, Bulgaria TV talk show.

In his opinion, the government must think about all those affected by the measures and there has to be a clear awareness of what is a priority and what is most important to the community. The epidemiologist stressed that it is too early to shift the blame on the reopened restaurants, but he thinks it will inevitably impact morbidity rates.

"For the sixth week running, the average daily number of infections has been going up, the number of hospitalizations is rising for more than 3 weeks, and the Covid mortality is growing. This is a very sustainable trend. Over the past two weeks, the average daily number of infections has increased exponentially as compared with the previous weeks," Dr Markov said.

According to experts’ experience accumulated last summer , Dr. Markov does not expect that warming will have an effect on the number of newly infected with coronavirus. He is of the opinion that pandemic development depends on the measures to be taken.

 "I don't see many restrictions in effect – now they have opened the restaurants, the younger students have been in school for a long time, now the older ones are back to in-person schooling. The imposition of local measures is reasonable when the country is bigger, Bulgaria is not so big.

Many questions go unanswered, but some answers have been found, according to Dr. Markov. Among the unanswered questions he singled out the absence of a clear and specific therapy for coronavirus. Regarding the news of a Nigerian version of the coronavirus, the epidemiologist explained that it resembles the South African. Commenting on vaccines, he explained that they work well against different strains, but with less effect in some cases.

  "RNA viruses are masters of mutations. The question is which of them are really a cause for concern. For Bulgaria, the main factor of importance is where the strain originated. That's why the British strain is such a big problem. It’s been in Bulgaria a long time. The other factor is how easily the strain is transmitted. Apparently the British strain is easily transmitted," explained Dr Markov.