Of the new cases confirmed on Monday, 1,051 were in the central region of Mazowieckie, which includes the national capital Warsaw.
The northern province of Pomorskie, which is home to the Baltic port city of Gdańsk, had the second-highest number of new infections confirmed by officials on Monday, at 643.
The latest deaths in Poland’s coronavirus outbreak are 18 people with pre-existing medical conditions and six who died directly because of COVID-19, the Polish health ministry said.
On Sunday, Poland confirmed 114 deaths and 10,099 new coronavirus infections nationwide, compared with 303 deaths and 12,100 fresh cases a day earlier.
On November 25, the country reported its highest daily toll of 674 deaths related to the coronavirus.
On November 7, the Polish health ministry confirmed 27,875 new single-day cases, the most since the pandemic hit the country in early March.
As of Monday, a total of 3,336,354 coronavirus vaccine shots had been administered nationwide, including over 2.1 million first doses and almost 1.2 million second doses, according to data released by officials.
As of Saturday, Poles are required to cover their nose and mouth in public with a face mask, rather than a scarf, bandana or plastic visor. Image: Hank Williams/Pixabay
Stricter rules on face masks, border crossing
Under a new set of coronavirus restrictions that took effect on Saturday, Poles are no longer allowed to use scarves, bandanas and plastic visors instead of masks to cover their face in public.
Meanwhile, anyone crossing Poland’s southern border with the Czech Republic and Slovakia will have to go into quarantine unless they have received two doses of an anti-COVID-19 vaccine, or a test carried out in the last 48 hours shows they do not have the coronavirus.
Regional curbs
In another move designed to counter a recent spike in cases, a range of restrictions on public life has been reintroduced in the Warmińsko-Mazurskie region of northeastern Poland, where the level of infections is high.
Hotels, shopping malls, cinemas, theatres, museums and swimming pools there have been told to shut, while young schoolchildren in the region have returned to remote classes.
Pandemic restrictions in the rest of the country remain unchanged until at least March 14 following an easing of containment measures earlier this year.
Photo: Łukasz Gągulski/PAP
More vaccines delivered
The latest batch of some 380,000 COVID-19 vaccines produced by US drug maker Pfizer reached Poland on Monday morning, as did 230,000 shots from UK-based drug maker AstraZeneca, officials said.
The European Union, of which Poland is part, has struck deals to secure vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna, CureVac, Sanofi-GSK, and Johnson & Johnson.
Restrictions eased
Amid signs of a letup in the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Poland in the middle of January reopened schools for young children after a prolonged period of distance learning.
In a further easing of coronavirus curbs, shopping malls, museums and art galleries across the country were allowed to reopen last month.
Meanwhile, restrictions on hotels, entertainment venues and outdoor sports areas including ski slopes were partially lifted on February 12.
A host of other restrictions on public life, including the closure of restaurants and gyms, remain in place, following an announcement last month by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
(pk)
Source: PAP/IAR