Bulgaria extends emergency to halt spread of coronavirus

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's parliament on Friday approved the extension of a state of emergency by a month to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, as the number of confirmed cases rose to 485.

The Black Sea state's parliament voted unanimously on March 13 to declare a state of emergency until April 13.

As of Friday, Bulgaria has confirmed 14 deaths from the illness.

The one-month extension was passed with 122 votes for, 47 against and seven abstentions.

President Rumen Radev earlier on Friday criticised the government, saying that some provisions of the emergency law had triggered "an unprecedented social and economic crisis".

"When the state imposes restrictions, it must offer adequate compensation to both workers and businesses," Radev said.

The parliament also rubber-stamped on a first reading a revision of the 2020 budget that will allow the government to raise up to 10 billion levs ($5.52 billion) to finance a fiscal gap of 3% of GDP and ensure liquidity buffers for the small and open economy to deal with the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Editing by William Maclean)