Sofia, 13 August 2021 (MIA) - Bulgarian Minister of Health Stoicho Katsarov said Friday that Bulgaria is preparing to donate 51,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the Republic of North Macedonia, MIA’s Sofia correspondent reported. According to Katsarov, Bulgaria has donated 172,000 vaccine doses to Bhutan, another donation of 50,000 doses is provided to Bosnia and Herzegovina, 100,000 doses are in the process of being sold to Norway and 546,000 doses to be sold to Portugal. Bulgarian Health Minister addressing the National Assembly said that official Sofia had taken steps to purchase a new Austrian vaccine, which is still awaiting approval for use, adding “It has been developed based on dead virus.” Bulgaria has ordered 13,909,963 COVID vaccine doses for this year, of which 1,183,200 doses have been delivered by Aug. 10. Katsarov said that these actions have been taken to avoid destroying expired vaccines. The donations and sales to other countries will not deprive Bulgaria of necessary vaccines. The doses for 2022 and 2023 have already been secured. Recently, Katsarov told Bulgarian National Radio that more than two million Bulgarian citizens had been vaccinated with the first dose, and just over a million citizens had received the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine.