Polish police have revealed that they are stepping up checks on compliance with Covid regulations during the busy Christmas shopping period. An increased number of fines for violating the rules were issued over the weekend.
Nationwide, police imposed 12,600 fines for missing facemasks in public spaces at the weekend. An additional 12,700 cautions were issued and 1,000 cases were directed to court. Covering the mouth and nose is obligatory in indoor public spaces.
For comparison, since 1 August police have issued a total of 183,000 fines, 436,000 cautions and directed 12,500 cases to court, according to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. That works out at an average of around 1,400 fines per day.
The police have also warned that they plan to further ramp up inspections ahead of this weekend, the last before Christmas. Though there is a trading ban on most Sundays in Poland, last Sunday and the coming one are exceptions, with shops open.
A spokesman for Metro Properties, which owns nine shopping malls mainly in central and southern Poland, told Dziennik Gazeta Prawna that police had been checking facemasks and compliance with sanitary safety across its outlets. He noted that they were also using CCTV systems “to catch people who ignore the rules”.
A spokeswoman for Galeria Mokotów, a large shopping mall in Warsaw, said that despite regular announcements reminding shoppers to abide by the regulations, there were still “cases of non-compliance” and “failures to react to interventions by security”.
As of today, new restrictions entered into force in Poland, according to which the occupancy limit has been cut from 50% to 30% in restaurants, bars, hotels, cinemas and theatres. Fully vaccinated people do not count towards those limits.
Since the start of December, the number of customers allowed in retail outlets has been capped at one person per 15 square metres of floor space.
Main image credit: Piotr Skornicki / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
