Of the new cases confirmed on Thursday, the most—5,863—were in the central Mazowieckie region, which includes the national capital Warsaw.
Meanwhile, 4,971 new infections were reported in the densely populated southern coal mining region of Silesia.
The latest deaths in Poland’s coronavirus outbreak are 237 people with pre-existing medical conditions and 78 others who died directly because of COVID-19, the health ministry said.
On Wednesday, Poland confirmed 375 deaths and 30,586 new coronavirus infections nationwide, compared with 377 deaths and 19,652 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.
13,770 in hospitals, 619,100 quarantined
The Polish health ministry announced on Thursday morning that 13,770 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals nationwide, 1,297 of them on ventilators, with a further 619,100 people quarantined for possible coronavirus exposure.
Meanwhile, 3,813,718 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 Thursday morning, a total of 1,351 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.
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Source: IAR, PAP