SOFIA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Bulgaria's COVID-19 death toll has risen to 10,026 after 48 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, the country's health ministry said Thursday.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed infections rose by 1,733 to 242,124, the ministry said.

Data showed that 505 people recovered from the disease during the same period, raising the country's total recoveries to 202,005.

The ministry also said that 20,236 doses of coronavirus vaccines were administered in Bulgaria in the past 24 hours, taking the total number to 168,462.

Bulgaria reported its first COVID-19 death on March 11 last year. The highest daily increase of 221 deaths was reported on Dec. 1, when the country's COVID-19 death toll had risen to 4,035.

According to the latest data collated by the University of Oxford-based Our World in Data, the Balkan country has the highest fatality rate related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the European Union at 4.1 percent.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination campaigns are underway in some countries with already-authorized vaccines.

However, Bulgaria has failed in this regard so far. According to Our World in Data, cumulative COVID-19 vaccination doses administered per 100 people in Bulgaria are 2.13, and the country ranks last in the EU.

Meanwhile, 255 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 73 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Feb. 23. Enditem

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