Poland has today reported its highest ever daily number of new COVID-19 infections, 36,665, as infections rise rapidly amid the onset of a fifth wave of the virus fired by the Omicron variant.
Today’s figure was 128% higher than the number reported one week ago. It exceeds the previous record peak of 35,251 registered on 1 April last year.
Deputy health minister Waldemar Kraska today revealed that Omicron cases now make up around 30% of new infections, reports Polsat News. The variant is already dominant in three of Poland’s 16 provinces, he said.
Earlier this week, the health minister, Adam Niedzielski, declared that the fifth wave of the virus had begun and predicted that there would be a peak of around 60,000 daily new cases in mid-February. However, he noted that some forecasts indicate the figure will pass 100,000, and could go as high as 140,000.
The minister warned that there was a “very high risk of failure of the healthcare system”, especially as a high number of beds – around 13,500 – are already occupied by Covid patients from the recent fourth wave.
Those concerns have been exacerbated by Poland’s relatively low vaccination rate. Currently only around 57% of Poland’s population are fully vaccinated, compared to a figure of 71% across the European Union as a whole.
While the government has ordered public employees to work from home, and has encouraged other employers to do the same with their staff, it has so far avoided introducing any new restrictions. Niedzielski has, however, said that he will today outline proposals to increase access to testing.
Asked about the possibility of children returning to remote learning, Niedzielski said that the situation would be assessed after the winter school holidays. This two-break break is currently taking place in some provinces, but in others will not begin until mid-February.
Last week, three quarters of the government’s Covid advisory council jointly resigned in protest against the lack of action to tackle the pandemic. They said that their recommendations had been ignored and condemned the “growing tolerance” for Covid deniers and anti-vaccine sentiment in the government’s ranks.
Main image credit: Hospital CLÍNIC/Flickr (under CC BY-ND 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
