The Balkan country saw a daily record of 240 new infections on Thursday
Bulgaria has banned football fans from stadiums and shut clubs and bars just weeks after they had reopened as it battles a spike in coronavirus cases, health officials said on Thursday.
The Balkan country saw a daily record of 240 new infections on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 6,342, including 259 deaths.
Until recently, Bulgaria had been only lightly affected by the pandemic and had eased lockdown measures before most other European countries.
The new restrictions will ban spectators from all sports events both indoors and outdoors, Health Minister Kiril Ananiev told a press conference.
“The number of new cases has not stopped increasing over the past ten days, going over the critical limit of 200 in 24 hours,” Ananiev said.
“A trend towards more cases is possible in the coming days.”
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However, Ananiev said there was still capacity in the health system to deal with the pandemic.
“It has turned out that discipline is not our strongest quality, which has made it necessary to reintroduce some measures,” Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said in a statement after a meeting of the coronavirus taskforce.
Night clubs, discos and bars will also be shut again, having only reopened on June 15, with officials promising more stringent checks.
Open-air venues will still be allowed to operate but at half of their usual capacity.
The new order also limits the number of attendees at weddings, baptisms and school leavers’ celebrations at 30.
Bulgaria allowed fans into stadiums when it resumed professional league matches on June 5 – but only one-third of seats could be used and social distancing was supposed to be enforced.
But spectators largely broke distancing rules at the Bulgaria Cup final between CSKA Sofia and Lokomotiv Plovdiv on July 1.
Lokomotiv Plovdiv, which won the final, said on Thursday five of its players and two officials had been infected with the coronavirus.
