Poland’s health ministry today reported 24,239 new coronavirus cases – the highest since 10 April, after the peak of the third wave – as well as 463 related deaths.
Despite the steady rise in daily infections as the fourth wave hits the country, the government today restated that it does not see the need to announce any new restrictions.
The seven-day average of new Covid cases has now reached almost 16,000, doubling in the last two weeks. At the beginning of October, the average number of cases reported per day was still under 1,000.
The average number of daily deaths, meanwhile, is now 196, also more than doubling in the last fortnight. It is now at its highest point since mid-May, when it had come down from its highest point, at 603, a month earlier.
More than 15,000 of Poland’s almost 21,000 beds for Covid patients are currently occupied, and almost 70% of ventilators are being used. More beds have been set up in the past months and temporary hospitals are being reopened, reports Gazeta.pl.
The hospital at the National Stadium, which was created last autumn, will again begin admitting patients on 25 November, with 100 beds and 10 ventilators.
📊 Dzienny raport o #koronawirus. pic.twitter.com/1VygWWssZv
— Ministerstwo Zdrowia (@MZ_GOV_PL) November 17, 2021
Despite the rapid rise in Covid infections, deaths and hospitalisations, the government today reiterated its refusal to introduce new restrictions. Rules were loosened in the spring, and those that remain are not always observed.
“For the time being, we do not see the need to introduce additional restrictions,” said health ministry spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz. He noted that more beds for coronavirus patients were being set up and that there had been a decline in infections in the eastern Lublin and Podlasie provinces, which had seen most infections in past months.
He explained that today’s figures contained an accumulation after the long weekend, and noted that they are only around 30% higher than the case numbers from a week ago.
Opposition figures, however, reacted by calling on the government to introduce new restrictions, particularly on unvaccinated people, as has been done elsewhere in Europe.
“We expect the government to not be…a hostage of part of its electorate”, said MP Michał Wypij on behalf of the Agreement (Porozumienie) party. He called for the introduction of Covid passports to “minimise the risk of transmission” and “build a sense of safety in society”.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that measures introduced in Western Europe were “ineffective” and led to “gigantic demonstrations”. Echoing his words, Adam Niedzielski, the health minister, said the government wanted “this wave of infections to pass at the lowest socio-economic cost.”
The government has instead emphasised encouraging people to follow masking rules. Andrusiewicz said today that increased controls in public transport had been effective.
In August, the government outlined details of local restrictions it would introduce in the event of a rise in infections, but these have not come to fruition.
The number of people fully vaccinated against coronavirus in Poland remains low, at under 54% of the total population, compared to 70% in the EU as a whole. Almost 1.4 million people in the country have also now received a Covid booster jab, which is available to everybody if six months have passed since their previous vaccination.
Main image credit: Jacek Marczewski/Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.
