Bulgaria to give COVID-19 shots to all who want them amid high public mistrust

SOFIA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Bulgaria will provide vaccineshots against COVID-19 to everyone who wants one, the primeminister said on Friday, speeding up the vaccinations in thecountry that has the poorest record of inoculations in theEuropean Union amid high public mistrust.

Over 70% of teachers and workers in sensitive infrastructurethat had priority for inoculations after frontline medics didnot show up for their appointments, health officials said.

Only 10% of Bulgarians want to get a shot as soon aspossible and 52% do not want to be vaccinated at all. Some 36.8%say they are considering getting vaccinated but want to wait abit longer, a recent survey by the independent pollster AlphaResearch showed.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov told a government meetingthat medics should open up inoculations to everyone who wants toget vaccinated, to avoid delays and administer at least 10,000shots per day.

"While some are hesitating, we should vaccinate those whoare willing," Borissov said. "This will increase significantlythe percent of the vaccinated people, which will boost ourshield against the disease and will help us avoid new lockdownsor restrictions."

Bulgaria has a population of 7 million people but hasadministered only 90,500 shots against COVID-19 so far. About25,400 people have had two shots.

The slow pace was initially explained by the limiteddeliveries of vaccines. The country now has enough doses tovaccinate about 10,000 people per day. It expects to receiveanother 500,000 doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca andModerna, officials said.(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova, editing by Larry King)