Of the new cases confirmed on Friday, 1,010 were in the central region of Mazowieckie, which includes the national capital Warsaw.
Meanwhile, 581 new infections were reported in the northern province of Pomorskie, which contains the Baltic port city of Gdańsk.
The western province of Wielkopolskie, which is home to the major city of Poznań, had the third-highest number of new infections confirmed by officials on Friday, at 535.
The latest deaths in Poland’s coronavirus outbreak are 201 people with pre-existing medical conditions and 46 who died directly because of COVID-19, the Polish health ministry said.
On Thursday, Poland confirmed 456 deaths and 7,008 new coronavirus infections nationwide, compared with 360 deaths and 6,930 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.
12,215 in hospitals, 149,615 quarantined
The health ministry announced on Friday morning that 12,215 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals nationwide, 1,277 of them on ventilators, with a further 149,615 people quarantined for possible coronavirus exposure.
Meanwhile, 1,330,127 people have now recovered from COVID-19 throughout the country, including 6,026 over the last 24 hours, the health ministry also said.
A nation in quarantine
Amid signs of a letup in the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Poland in the middle of last month 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 at the start of last week.
Meanwhile, restrictions on hotels, entertainment venues and outdoor sports areas including ski slopes were partially lifted on Friday.
A host of other restrictions on public life, including the closure of restaurants and gyms, will remain in place, although the epidemic appears to have “stabilized,” according to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki seen on a screen during a virtual news conference last Friday. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Under restrictions announced in October, pubs, restaurants and cafes are only allowed to provide take-aways and delivery orders.
Beginning October 10, people must cover their mouths and noses when outdoors in public places as well as in most indoor environments nationwide.
Temporary hospitals, remote patient monitoring
In an effort to deal with the second wave of the pandemic, the country has set up a network of temporary hospitals to treat coronavirus patients.
Meanwhile, some of those testing positive for COVID-19 are monitored remotely from their homes using special finger-clip devices called pulse oximeters, under an initiative announced by the country’s health minister at the end of November.
Vaccinations approach 2 million
A 52-year-old Warsaw hospital nurse on December 27 became the first Pole to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced in December that his government had secured vaccines for the Polish population from six leading international drug makers.
On Thursday, Poland received its second delivery of 141,000 doses of a vaccine offered by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and a delayed third shipment of 82,000 doses of a shot produced by US drug maker Moderna, officials said.
On Monday, a shipment of around 320,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech arrived at Warsaw's Chopin Airport, Michał Kuczmierowski, head of Poland's Material Reserves Agency (ARM), told the media.
Polish Health Minister Adam Niedzielski has said that around 6.7 million coronavirus vaccine doses are expected to reach the country by the end of March, including 4.8 million from Pfizer/BioNTech, 1.15 million from AstraZeneca, and 744,000 from Moderna.
Poland's Health Minister Adam Niedzielski, seen on a screen during a virtual media briefingg. Photo: PAP/Piotr Nowak
In the first quarter of this year, more than 3 million people are expected to be vaccinated for COVID-19 throughout the country, officials have said.
Frontline healthcare workers are first in line to be inoculated, followed by nursing home residents, the elderly, people with chronic health conditions, teachers, police, and soldiers.
Poland last month began administering COVID-19 vaccines to citizens over 70.
Citizens over 80 have been able to sign up for COVID-19 shots since January 15. On January 22, registration opened to those in the 70+ age group.
Poland last month began administering COVID-19 vaccines to citizens over 70. People can send a text message to sign up for a shot. They can also go online to register or call a 989 vaccination hotline to schedule an appointment. Photo: PAP/Wojtek Jargiło
Meanwhile, younger Polish adults can put their names on a waiting list for a vaccine, but for now there is no timeline on when they will be able to receive a shot.
Poland on Friday began vaccinating teachers. Around 268,000 teachers have signed up for the shots, according to officials.
Almost 6,000 vaccination sites are available to citizens as the country rolls out its COVID-19 inoculation programme, according to the prime minister's top aide, Michał Dworczyk, who is spearheading the drive.
Poland originally announced plans to spend PLN 3 billion (EUR 675 million, USD 820 million) on more than 60 million doses of coronavirus vaccines under a national inoculation program adopted by the government.
At the start of last week, Dworczyk told reporters that Poland had ordered almost 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in total, enough to inoculate 58 million people, more than its population of around 38 million.
As of Friday, a total of 1,993,739 coronavirus vaccine shots had been administered nationwide, according to data released by officials.
'Let's get vaccinated'
At the end of December, the government launched a media campaign called Szczepimy Się (Let's Get Vaccinated) to encourage Poles to get COVID-19 shots.
The immunization effort began after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on December 21 recommended conditional approval for a coronavirus vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech for use across the European Union.
The decision by the EU regulator was subsequently greenlighted by the bloc’s executive, the European Commission.
The first vaccines for the coronavirus were administered in Poland on Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, as part of a coordinated rollout across the European Union. Photo: PAP/Łukasz Gągulski
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.
The European Medicines Agency on January 6 gave the green light to Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, the second shot it approved as countries stepped up inoculation efforts amid fears of more contagious strains of the coronavirus.
The European medicines regulator on January 29 approved the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine for people over the age of 18, the third coronavirus shot to be cleared for use in the EU.
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Source: IAR, PAP, TVP Info, Reuters