Of the new cases confirmed on Wednesday, the most—2,812—were in the central Mazowieckie region, which includes the national capital Warsaw.
Meanwhile, 2,174 new infections were reported in the southern province of Małopolskie, which is home to Poland's second-largest city of Kraków.
The latest deaths in Poland’s coronavirus outbreak are 503 people with pre-existing medical conditions and 181 others who died directly because of COVID-19, the health ministry said.
On Tuesday, Poland confirmed 493 deaths and 11,406 new coronavirus infections nationwide, compared with 19 deaths and 7,785 fresh cases a day earlier.
On April 8, 2021, the country reported its highest daily toll of 954 deaths related to the coronavirus.
On April 1, 2021, the Polish health ministry confirmed 35,251 new single-day cases, the most since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020.
Poland's first case of coronavirus infection was reported on March 4, 2020.
17,155 in hospitals, 183,295 quarantined
The Polish health ministry announced on Wednesday morning that 17,155 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals nationwide, 1,682 of them on ventilators, with a further 183,295 people quarantined for possible coronavirus exposure.
Meanwhile, 3,741,583 people have now recovered from COVID-19 throughout the country, the health ministry also said.
Health Minister Adam Niedzielski has told reporters that the country is bracing for a peak in COVID-19 omicron cases in late January when up to 60,000 hospital beds could be needed for patients.
Public health authorities in the middle of last month confirmed Poland's first case of the omicron COVID-19 variant. Since then 233 more omicron cases have been detected, according to the health ministry's spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz.
Polish health ministry spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz. Photo: PAP/Wojciech Olkuśnik
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.
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Source: IAR, PAP