A total of 107,319 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Poland since the pandemic began, and 2,792 have died from the COVID-19 respiratory disease so far, public health officials announced.
Of the new cases confirmed on Wednesday, 527 were in the central region of Mazowieckie, which includes the national capital Warsaw.
Meanwhile, 357 new infections were reported in the southern province of Małopolskie, which contains the historic city of Kraków.
The country's southern Silesia coal mining region had the third-highest number of new infections confirmed on Wednesday, at 286.
The latest deaths in Poland’s coronavirus outbreak are people aged 40 to 93, the Polish health ministry said in a tweet.
It added that 67 of these patients had pre-existing medical conditions, while eight died directly because of COVID-19.
On Tuesday, the Polish health ministry reported 58 deaths and 2,236 new coronavirus infections nationwide, compared with 29 deaths and 2,006 new cases a day earlier.
4,000 in hospitals, 145,873 quarantined
The health ministry announced on Wednesday morning that 4,000 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals nationwide, 283 of them on ventilators, with a further 145,873 people quarantined for possible coronavirus exposure, and 21,289 under epidemiological supervision.
Meanwhile, 75,346 people have now recovered from COVID-19 throughout the country, including 1,188 over the last 24 hours, the health ministry also said.
Poland’s health minister on Tuesday announced “zero tolerance” towards people who flout sanitary rules amid the spike in coronavirus infections, warning that offenders will be “severely punished.”
With 70 COVID-19 deaths per million population, Poland remains far less affected by the coronavirus epidemic than many other countries in Europe, new statistics have shown.
To compare, Belgium has 867 deaths per million residents, according to new data released by the Polish health ministry on Tuesday, while Spain has 689 and Britain reports 623.
Click on the "Play" button above to listen to an audio report
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR, PAP, TVP Info