Bulgaria, EU’s least vaccinated nation, faces deadly surge

By STEPHEN McGRATH
Associated Press

VELIKO TARNOVO, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria has one of the highest coronavirus death rates and the lowest vaccination rate in the 27-nation European Union. The country is now facing a rapid surge of infections due to the more infectious delta variant. The chief vaccination nurse at a hospital in northern Bulgaria says her fellow citizens don’t believe in vaccines. Only 20% of adults in the Balkan nation have so far been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That places it last in the entire EU, which has an average fully vaccinated rate of 69%. One Bulgarian medical worker was angry that fellow citizens are not getting vaccine shots, saying that her COVID-19 ICU ward was made up of 100% unvaccinated people.