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

By STEPHEN McGRATH
Associated Press

VELIKO TARNOVO, Bulgaria (AP) — The chief vaccination nurse at a hospital in northern Bulgaria voices a sad reality about her fellow citizens. She says “they don’t believe in vaccines.” Bulgaria has one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the 27-nation European Union and is facing a rapid surge of infections due to the more infectious delta variant.  But people in this Balkan nation are the most hesitant in bloc to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Only 20% of adults in Bulgaria have so far been fully vaccinated. That places it last in the entire European Union which has an average fully vaccinated rate of 69%.