More than 2 million COVID certificates downloaded in Bulgaria

The total number of COVID certificates downloaded through the National Health Information System exceeded 2 million. In the last 10 days alone, when the new anti-epidemic measures were introduced, consumers have downloaded a total of more than 1.05 million documents, which is 55 per cent of the total number of certificates. The system for generating certificates was put into operation on June 1, 2021.

On October 25, 2021, nearly 263,000 downloads were reported during the day, which is a record for the period. On the same day, the system reported another record achievement - nearly 27,000 downloads in 60 minutes.

At peak hours, users downloaded an average of 500 documents per minute, which is nearly nine certificates per second. The data were officially presented by the Executive Director of Information Services AD Ivaylo Filipov to the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Hristo Alexiev.

"The system for generating certificates built by Information Services AD has helped the Bulgarian economy to continue to function normally in the conditions of tightened anti-epidemic measures," said Ivaylo Filipov.

According to him, over 30 per cent of Bulgarian citizens already own and effectively use the COVID certificate, which provides them with access to public places where restrictive measures have been imposed.

According to the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Hristo Alexiev, nearly 50,000 of those employed in schools and kindergartens already have the document, which allows them to perform their duties in the face of tight anti-epidemic measures.

"We are proud that Bulgaria was among the first seven countries that started issuing the document, 30 days before the European regulation (EU) 2021/953 became mandatory for all EU countries and among the first 4 countries that started validation of the electronic COVID certificate ", said Minister Hristo Alexiev.

So far, the system has generated a total of 3,563 million certificates. Of these, about 1.5 million are documents for a completed vaccination cycle, and nearly 17,000 are documents for a booster dose.

Nearly 1.3 million were issued certificates for a negative coronavirus test result, and more than 178,000 were for COVID-19 patients, who were confirmed with a positive PCR result. The generated certificates with COVID-19 with a positive result from an antigen test are over 60,000.

As of yesterday, the Bulgarian validator COVID CHECK BG, which was developed by Information Services AD, can now scan certificates for patients with COVID-19, with a positive result from an antigen test, after Google approved the new version of the application.

It can be used to check and scan certificates of visitors in restaurants, halls, cinemas, theatres, sporting events and more. So far, the Bulgarian validator has been downloaded over 100,000 times from the Google Play Store. (ANI/Novinite)

( With inputs from ANI )