December 17 (BTA) - The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Bulgaria reached 721,819, after 35,829 tests identified 1,443 new infections on Thursday, 81.64 per cent of which were of unvaccinated persons, according to data posted on https://coronavirus.bg/. The test positivity rate now stands at 4.03 per cent.

Sofia City Region tops the list of new cases with 343 positive tests, followed by Plovdiv Region with 136 cases and Varna Region with 101.

The active cases are 95,090. Currently, the hospitalized patients number 4,791, including 551 in intensive care. Of the 376 new hospital admissions, 82.98 per cent were not vaccinated.

The infected medical staff have reached 17,845.

Another 1,433 COVID-19 patients have recovered over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 596,796.

Eighty-six fatalities were reported (87.21 per cent unvaccinated), and the death toll now adds up to 29,933.

With 18,701 new inoculations over the last 24 hours, 3,560,057 vaccine doses have been administered so far, 1,862,639 people are fully vaccinated, and 204,322 have received a booster jab.