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UPDATE: Polish health minister quitting

18.08.2020 16:03
Polish Health Minister Łukasz Szumowski, who has been at the centre of his country’s battle against the COVID-19 epidemic, announced on Tuesday he was quitting.
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Łukasz Szumowski.
Łukasz Szumowski. Photo: PAP/Wojciech Olkuśnik

Szumowski told a press conference he had intended to make a decision about resigning in February. Then, he added, the coronavirus epidemic broke out and he stayed on for another six months.

Szumowski told reporters that he felt he could now leave because Poland had built a system to fight the 19 epidemic, and the virus had not caused the economy to crash.

A total of 57,876 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Poland since the start of the pandemic, and 1,896 have died from the COVID-19 respiratory disease so far, officials said on Tuesday.

The number of new virus cases rose by 597 from the previous day, while the death toll increased by 11, according to public health authorities.

On August 8, Poland's public health authorities reported a record daily rise of 843 new coronavirus infections nationwide, the most since the pandemic hit the country in early March.

With 48 COVID-19 deaths per million population, Poland remains far less affected by the coronavirus epidemic than many other countries in Europe, according to a set of data released by the country’s health ministry earlier this month.

(pk)

Source: IAR/PAP

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