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Poland reports another daily record with 40,876 COVID-19 cases

22.01.2022 11:00
Poland reported a new record daily rise in coronavirus infections for the second day in a row on Saturday, confirming 40,876 new cases, the most since the pandemic hit the country almost two years ago.
A drive-through coronavirus testing site in the central Polish city of Łódź.
A drive-through coronavirus testing site in the central Polish city of Łódź.Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Michałowski

The death toll increased by 193, according to public health authorities.

A total of 4,484,095 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Poland since the start of the pandemic, and 103,819 have died in connection with the COVID-19 respiratory disease so far, officials said on Saturday.

Poland’s previous daily record was on the day before when 36,665 new coronavirus infections were confirmed nationwide.

Of the new cases confirmed on Saturdaythe most—7,120—were in the central Mazowieckie region, which includes the national capital Warsaw.

Meanwhile, 6,442 new infections were reported in the densely populated southern coal mining region of Silesia.

The latest deaths in Poland’s coronavirus outbreak are 163 people with pre-existing medical conditions and 30 others who died directly because of COVID-19, the health ministry said.

On Friday, Poland confirmed 248 deaths and 36,665 new coronavirus infections nationwide, compared with 315 deaths and 32,835 fresh caseday earlier.

On April 8, 2021, the country reported its highest daily toll of 954 deaths related to the coronavirus.

Poland's first case of coronavirus infection was reported on March 4, 2020.

13,504 in hospitals, 828,763 quarantined

The Polish health ministry announced on Saturday morning that 13,504 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals nationwide, 1,274 of them on ventilators, with a further 828,763 people quarantined for possible coronavirus exposure.

Meanwhile, 3,834,813 people have now recovered from COVID-19 throughout the country, the health ministry also said.

Health Minister Adam Niedzielski told reporters on Wednesday that the government would make remote working mandatory for public-sector employees as the number of daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 30,000.

Niedzielski said earlier this week that Poland had entered a fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic amid the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

He warned that coronavirus infections in the country could soon hit record levels, peaking at about 60,000 in mid-February.

Public health authorities in the middle of last month confirmed Poland's first case of the omicron COVID-19 variant. By Friday morning, a total of 1,390 omicron cases had been detected nationwide, according to Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska.

A range of coronavirus restrictions took effect in the country in December as it seeks to fend off the new, highly contagious strain of the coronavirus.

(ał)

Source: IAR, PAP