The COVID-19 vaccination in Bulgaria is an immunization campaign currently taking place against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that is the cause of the COVID-19 disease. It began on 27 December 2020, in line with most other countries in the EU, and is in response to the ongoing pandemic in Bulgaria. The vaccination drive was affected by organizational and supply-related issues during the initial months while since the spring of 2021 vaccine hesitancy has contributed significantly to the country having the lowest rate of inoculations in the EU, with 35% of Bulgaria's adult citizens, and 30% of its eligible population, fully vaccinated by May 2022.
Background
After being one of the first countries in Europe to enter a lockdown, which came into effect on 13 March 2020, five days after the first case was confirmed and when there were 23 people with positive tests, Bulgaria had mostly cluster-based transmission and a relatively low rate of infection compared to many other sovereign states on the continent up until mid June 2020 (when the vast majority of restrictions were lifted), managing to a large extent to be spared from a first wave, with the timely lockdown saving 15,000 to 19,000 lives according to one assessment. However, it was heavily affected during the autumn months, over the course of which the health system came under severe strain, reaching a state of near collapse, resulting in a very high death toll per capita, especially for the month of November and early December 2020.
The authorities' handling of the pandemic has been criticized for insufficient levels of testing for the virus, the nature of the policies in relation to the quarantining of foreign arrivals and the lax enforcement, especially outside the capital city, an absence of an adequate exit strategy after the first lockdown, contributing to rather loose general measures against the spread of the virus during the summer of 2020, poor preparedness of the country's health system for the second wave of the pandemic, contradictory and inconsistent messaging, downplaying the gravity of the epidemiological situation as well as not following some of the recommendations of health experts due to concerns that the imposition of tight measures, purportedly not resonating with the wishes of most of the population, could pile on public pressure on the government, which faced political protests from July 2020 to April 2021. Medical professionals and politicians have expressed the view that the second partial lockdown that entered into force just before midnight of 28 November 2020 should have come earlier, at least three to four weeks before it was imposed and with stricter restrictions. Infection rates soared during March 2021, approaching the autumn levels and causing an even sharper rise in hospitalizations than in the preceding months, which prompted the government to impose a third lockdown from 22 to 31 March, though this once again garnered criticism for being a reactive measure that was long overdue and followed the almost complete reopening of the economy in the previous weeks, with medical professionals expressing concerns that its length was insufficient. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has been accused of populism, with some analysts drawing comparisons with Donald Trump's approach to the pandemic, by prioritizing the interests of lobbies in the entertainment business and hospitality industries over those of health care establishments as well as allowing political considerations relating to the spring elections to influence the nature of the policy decisions. Some of the lockdown-related measures implemented during the spring of 2020, such as the closures of public parks, have been subject to criticism due to being regarded as overly harsh in terms of the fines levied and not being justifiable on epidemiological grounds, as well as reflective of what some sources have denounced as a panic-inducing general approach of the authorities in the early stages of the pandemic.