of emergency." in an interview for bulgarian national television, stoimenova had stated that the market for protective gear appears to be normalizing following the shortages the country experienced at the outbreak of the pandemic, but disruptions in the international pharmaceutical trade might lead to shortages of other medical supplies in bulgaria. when interviewed in december 2021, ventsislav mutafchiyski stated that bulgaria had followed a covid-zero rather than a "living with covid" strategy until 13 may 2020. testing as of 24 march, there are 5 laboratories testing for covid-19 in the country with a capacity of 300 tests per day. the total number of tests done by 26 march was 6,454, with 264 confirmed cases and a rate of infection around 4.1%. on 27 march, the ministry of health announced that the country now has the capacity to process between 1,000 and 1,200 tests per day, at an estimated cost of bgn 930,000 (eur 475,000) per month. two additional methods of testing would be introduced at later stages of the pandemic – fluorescence immunochromatographic tests (up to 20,000 per day) and the so-called 'quick' tests (up to 40,000 per day). major general ventsislav mutafchiyski called all three types "equally important", as the pcr ones provided reliable data, while the fluorescence tests could speed up the process before quick ones are applied to establish how many people have acquired immunity. however, mutafchiyski later added that rapid tests are considered "unreliable" and therefore mass screening would be "meaningless". conversely, prof. radka argirova, chairman of the national expert board in virology at the bulgarian doctors' union, urged increased rapid testing to discover asymptomatic cases, avoiding the chance of a future second peak and terminating the epidemic progression. "aggressive, complete screening" of the population was also advocated by dr. rumen hichev, a bulgarian medical professional based in the united states and part of a medical advisor team to the white house. according to hichev, the bulgarian government had reacted quickly, but without mass screening to establish asymptomatic spreaders, any effort would be behind the course of events. on 5 april, the ministry of health announced a total of 15,599 tests had been performed to date in eight laboratories across the country. the government announced that by 18 april, 26 417 tests had been performed. as of october 2020, there were 65 laboratories offering pcr testing, the results of which were recognized for travel abroad. on 22 october 2021, it was announced that the record number of 47,370 tests (both pcr and rapid antigen) had been performed over the last 24 hours, which was attributed to the introduction of the "green certificate" (obtained courtesy of a vaccination, proof of recovery from covid-19 or a negative test) requirement for many public activities. a covid-19 testing laboratory near iuzhen park in sofia. medication after testing positive for covid-19, business magnate kiril domuschiev announced that his company will procure chloroquine from foreign sources and donate it to the national coronavirus task force. chloroquine, a quinine drug, has shown positive effects on covid-19 patients in china and france. the bulgarian government is looking into import opportunities from china and domestic production by local pharmaceutical companies. exports of all quinine-based drugs were prohibited until further notice, and 35,000 doses of quinine-based metamizole for export have been diverted for domestic consumption. another 250,000 doses of the drug can reportedly be produced on a short notice by local pharmaceutical companies. on 3 april, the government negotiated the delivery of 171,429 packs of hydroxychloroquine sulfate and 30,000 packs of azithromycin from the china national pharmaceutical group. the shipment was delivered using a nato boeing c-17 globemaster iii piloted by a bulgarian air force captain; the cargo also included more than 1,600,000 masks and 50 ventilators. bulgarian biotechnology company micar21 has been developing a general coronavirus vaccine in the past four years, and announced that it will begin clinical trials of a sars-cov-2 vaccine based on this research in mid-2020. the company announced that with government support in funding and shorter clinical trial protocols, the drug could be synthesised in two months. colchicine has been offered to patients since april 2020 with some promising results, but the degree of effectiveness as well as the precise dosage remains under evaluation. some medical practitioners have controversially prescribed ivermectin in an off-label fashion, contrary to international medical guidelines. projections according to a research conducted by the institute for health metrics and evaluation at the university of washington, the pandemic was expected to reach its peak in bulgaria in the end of april. the projections were assuming full social distancing through may 2020. the research listed 856 icu beds in the country and projected no shortage of medical resources. criticism georgi todorov, a bulgarian doctor with experience in viral breakouts in ghana, criticised the handling of the covid-19 threat. in particular, todorov stated that bulgaria's health administration is so rife with nepotism that it cannot come up with any coherent response; as a result, infectious disease specialists were not taken into account when formulating response policies, and no specific locations were designated for potential covid-19 cases. todorov further assumed that infected individuals may have not been identified because of improper application of testing procedures. following the end of the first lockdown in bulgaria, there has been criticism due to the lack of sufficiently strict non-pharmaceutical interventions implemented by the governments. discrimination some roma communities, like the one in burgas, were surveilled with thermal drone cameras. other communities, from places like yambol or kyustendil, were sprayed with disinfectants from helicopters and crop dusters. ognyan isaev, a roma activist, expressed concerns that if the pandemic worsened, discriminatory measures could be reinstated. economy the bulgarian government has enacted a series of measures aimed at reducing the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic to businesses and individuals. 60/40 measure the so-called "60/40 measure" is a short-term instrument to help businesses retain their employees during the covid-19 crisis. the state will cover 60% of employees' insurable earnings, as well as the social insurance contributions owed by the employer. the measure is in effect for the duration of the state of emergency announced on 13 march 2020, but for no longer than 3 months. state-backed interest-free loans program for individuals the program provides state-backed, interest-free, zero-fee loans to individuals, deprived of the opportunity to work as an effect of the covid-19 pandemic. the program is implemented by the bulgarian development bank in partnership with a number of banks from the private sector. self-employed individuals and individuals under an employment contract are eligible for an interest-free loan of up to 4,500 bgn (2,300 eur), with a grace period between six and twenty-four months, paid out in three monthly installments of 1,500 bgn. working capital loans for smes the program, financed by the bulgarian development bank, provides working capital loans of up to 300,000 bgn, aiming to provide liquidity to smes affected by the covid-19 pandemic. grants for small and micro-enterprises small and micro-enterprises are eligible for state grants between 3,000 and 10,000 bgn, provided they have reported at least 20% drop in monthly revenue compared to the same month in 2019. moratorium on loan repayments the board of directors of the bulgarian national bank established a private moratorium on loans repayments, as presented by the association of banks in bulgaria, which allows for payments deferral of up to six months. impact bulgaria recorded 31,643 newly registered unemployed for the period between 13 march to 1 april. from these, 17,793 claimants stated that job losses were a direct consequence of the pandemic, and 12,661 registered in the week 23–27 march alone, compared to 4,561 for the same period in 2019. the number of unemployed continued to rise throughout april. according to a statistic released by the agency of employment, as of 28 april 2020, there were 291,426 registered unemployed, a rise of 90,405 since the introduction of the national emergency. a survey conducted by the bulgarian industrial association showed that initially only 8% of the companies were willing to use the government stimulus package, which quickly became colloquially known as 'the 60/40 measure'. the proposal envisions the government paying 60% of the impacted businesses' employee wages for up to three months, as long as the companies refrain from lay-offs. views of the general public a gallup opinion poll from april 2020 revealed that 77% of the citizens expressed support for the lockdown-related pandemic control measures taken by the authorities in the country. а "trend" survey between 1 and 5 april 2020 saw 35% demand stronger measures against covid-19, 39% rating the government policies as sufficiently strict and 23% expressing the opinion that the pandemic controls need to be relaxed. а nation-wide opinion sampling of 1151 adult bulgarian citizens conducted by the bulgarian academy of sciences, the university of national and world economy, bulgarian sociological association and the union of economists of bulgaria in mid 2021 showed that the support for a "stay-at-home" order was 60%, with 75% approving of mask mandates and 74% agreeing with bans on public gatherings. according to a eurobarometer poll conducted between march and april 2021 82% of bulgarians expressed a wish that the european union acquires enhanced prerogatives in handling crises such as the covid-19 pandemic. assessments an april 2022 academic paper characterized bulgaria as "perhaps the most heavily affected" eastern european country in terms of excess mortality data, with the late imposition of restrictions on social mobility and the insufficient government control deemed likely to be the major factors behind this statistic. the authors also highlight the generally better health outcomes in major population centers as opposed to more peripheral regions of the country. the high degree of income inequality in bulgaria has been associated with corruption and lack of institutional trust, contributing to many issues with the country's response to the pandemic.