‘Putting lives at risk’: Bulgaria referred to rights body over Covid vaccine rollout

Charity complains to Council of Europe after low uptake and failure to prioritise over-65 and people with health conditions

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Bulgaria's government has been accused of negligence for failing to prioritise over-65s and people with pre-existing health conditions in its Covid vaccine rollout, in a case that exposes the low uptake of jabs in one of the EU's poorest member states.

The Open Society Foundations (OSF) charitable group said it was filing a formal complaint to the human-rights-focused Council of Europe, alleging that Bulgaria's government had put lives at risk, possibly leading to thousands of avoidable deaths.