Sofia Mayor says more parks will open, Vitosha as well

Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova told bTV’s Tsvetanka Rizova today that the municipal government is planning on opening at least two more parks in the city – Vazrazhdane park and St. Troitsa Park. Vitosha is also on the agenda: according to the mayor, it could open for visitors next week.

Sofia opened its larger parks on Monday with limited access: parents with children up to 12 and pregnant women may visit between 9:30 AM and 6:30 PM. People walking their pets or exercising may do so in the hours before 9:30 AM and after 6:30 PM.

Visitors must follow strict safety rules like keeping a distance of at least 2,5 meters, not crowding, not sitting on the benches. The municipality also issued routes one must take when visiting the park. Not all paths are allowed, and one must enter at a certain point, take the route and exit through another – at the end of the route. It is uncertain, though, whether these restrictions make it harder to achieve the principal goal of the measures to contain the virus – prevent people from crowding.

In any case, opening the parks and the city in general has begun. Fandakova stressed that the main focus is to do this gradually.

Fandakova said the Green and Blue parking zones in the city will remain free for now. There will not be a decision for how long, at least for the time being. The municipal government is assessing the situation as it unfolds and it will announce when the normal working hours of the paid parking zones will resume.

Meanwhile, after a few weeks of record-high increases of positive tests over periods of 24 hours, on Tuesday the coronavirus crisis response team registered a significant decrease in the newly confirmed cases. 39 coronavirus infections had been discovered since Monday as of Tuesday morning, and then another 12 were confirmed over the course of the day. The number of tests done in this time were relatively high as well – 1128, so the decrease is not due to less testing.

mediapool.bg