Around six in ten people in Poland are currently immune to coronavirus, as a result of either vaccination or recent infection, according to the health minister.
Adam Niedzielski also said that Poland has had several outbreaks of the Delta variant of the virus that was first detected in India, but that they have all been successfully isolated and contained.
“Both elements must be taken into account – the vaccination process and recovery. Together these two elements cause antibodies to be formed,” said the health minister, quoted by Radio Zet.
“In this respect, we already at the moment have around 60% of people who are immune,” Niedzielski noted. Pointing out that discussions about achieving so-called herd immunity often mention a threshold of 70-80%, he added “we are really very close to this point”.
Despite the easing of restrictions since early May, Niedzielski noted that infections were continuing to fall. “It is clear that these natural limits marked by the immunity acquired through vaccination or simply through recovery are working.”
More than 9.2 million people in Poland – just under a quarter of its total population – are now fully vaccinated, and almost 15.2 million – 40% of the population – have received at least one dose.
The health minister confirmed that Poland has had several outbreaks of the Delta variant (previously known as the Indian variant). He said that these have each affected 50 or 60 people after the virus was brought back by travellers from India.
“But we managed to overcome them, that is to effectively isolate those people so the outbreaks were extinguished,” he said, quoted by Onet.
“We are concentrating on the one hand on verifying which mutation we are dealing with, and on the other hand, each outbreak and infection associated with these alternative mutations is very thoroughly studied by the epidemic authorities,” Niedzielski explained.
Niedzielski also spoke about the need to vaccinate teenagers. Children aged 12 and above have been able to get a jab since Monday, and an information and vaccination programme in schools is due to take place in September.
Although children have previously generally recovered from Covid infections without serious symptoms, further mutations could be “much more dangerous” for them, the health minister warned.
Vaccinating children is not only a response to past events, but “simply a form of safeguard”, especially as in September “we will return to school and return to normal functioning”, which could potentially increase the infection rate, the minister added.
Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.
