Poland’s fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic has begun, says the country’s health ministry, amid a rise in infections. Vaccination rates, meanwhile, have fallen well below the European Union average, with only half the population fully jabbed.
Today’s number of new COVID-19 cases is 533, which is 46% higher than the figure a week ago. Yesterday’s 406 new infections was 42% up on a week earlier.
“The fourth wave is here,” deputy health minister Waldemar Kraska told Polsat News this morning. “Today another boundary has been crossed and a yellow light is flashing.”
Kraska urged those who have so far “hesitated” about getting vaccinated to do so as soon as possible. “It is the only way to limit the fourth wave” and avoid the most severe restrictions, he warned.
As of Monday, 50.16% of Poland’s population are fully vaccinated, compared to a figure of 59.2% across the EU as a whole. Until July, Poland had been matching the EU average, but it has since fallen significantly behind due to a rapid slowdown in registrations for vaccinations.
The government has tried various methods to encourage people to get the jab, including a lottery for fully vaccinated people with a 1 million zloty top prize. It has also warned that unvaccinated people will face greater restrictions than those who are fully jabbed.
The government has long cautioned that, while infection rates in Poland have been the lowest in the EU this summer, they were likely to rise significantly in the autumn following the reopening of schools and end of the holiday period.
Earlier this month, the health minister, Adam Niedzielski, said that forecasts indicate Poland will reach around 1,000 infections a day by the end of September and 5,000 by the end of October. “There is no question as to whether a fourth wave will occur, only when infections will accelerate and reach a peak,” he told TVP.
Last year, Poland suffered Europe’s worst autumn wave of coronavirus, resulting in the country having the EU’s highest excess death rate across all of 2020.
While the health ministry has said that it aims not to reintroduce a national lockdown, it has outlined a traffic-light system of restrictions that will be put in place in individual districts based on local infection and vaccination rates.
Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
“We would like to know what you think about our service so that we can keep improving Notes from Poland. The survey will take you just 5 minutes but will provide us with valuable feedback. Thank you for your time!”
Notes from Poland Readers’ Survey
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.
