Of the new cases confirmed on Monday, the most—5,348—were in the central Mazowieckie region, which includes the national capital Warsaw.
Meanwhile, 5,276 new infections were reported in the densely populated southern coal mining region of Silesia.
The latest deaths in Poland’s coronavirus outbreak are a patient with pre-existing medical conditions and another who died directly because of COVID-19, the health ministry said.
On Sunday, Poland confirmed 25 deaths and 34,088 new coronavirus infections nationwide, compared with 193 deaths and a record 40,876 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 second-highest number since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020.
Poland's first case of coronavirus infection was reported on March 4, 2020.
13,675 in hospitals, 819,306 quarantined
The Polish health ministry announced on Monday morning that 13,675 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals nationwide, 1,234 of them on ventilators, with a further 819,306 people quarantined for possible coronavirus exposure.
Meanwhile, 3,861,908 people have now recovered from COVID-19 throughout the country, the health ministry also said.
Poland is set to shorten the COVID-19 quarantine period from 10 to seven days beginning Tuesday and roll out free tests in pharmacies from January 27, officials have announced.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference on Friday that authorities would work to expand the number of hospital beds available to coronavirus patients to help deal with a spike in cases driven by the omicron variant of the virus.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski warned that coronavirus infections in the country would hit new records during the next few weeks, surpassing 60,000 daily cases and possibly approaching 140,000.
Niedzielski told reporters earlier last week that the government would make remote working mandatory for public-sector employees as the country enters a fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic amid the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Public health authorities in the middle of last month confirmed Poland's first case of the omicron COVID-19 variant. By Sunday morning, a total of 2,232 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