untitled design

Poland: The country entered the fifth wave of the pandemic

Poland is experiencing a fifth wave of infections due to Covid-19, the health minister said today, warning that the spread of the Omicron variant could send the number of cases to high levels that the country has not recorded since the pandemic began.

While the number of day-to-day cases has dropped since early December, the country has had a short break from the fourth wave, regularly reporting more than 10,000 new infections a day amid low vaccination rates and a reluctance to comply.

“We anticipate that the peak of infections will be in mid-February and that peak is about 60,000 cases a day,” Adam Nienzielski told a news conference.

The highest number of daily cases reported since the outbreak of the pandemic was 35,251 on April 1, 2021.

Nienjielski stressed that he expects the data to be announced on Tuesday to number more than 20,000 daily cases.

On Friday, 13 of the 17 members of Poland’s Medical Council, which advises the prime minister on tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, resigned, condemning the lack of scientific influence in policy-making.

“The discrepancy between scientific and medical reasoning and (government) practice is evident especially in the very limited efforts made to deal with the wave in the autumn and after the threat of the Omicron variant, despite the huge number of deaths. expected “, said the 13 resigned members of the Council in the announcement they sent to the Polish news agency PAP.

Nienjelski said he had tried to persuade council members who had resigned to continue their work as council members, but without success. He added that a new advisory body will be created that will have a different form.

“The change will be mainly in the expansion of the scheme, so there will be a wider range of experts who will help and advise the prime minister,” Nienzieski said.

The country of approximately 38 million inhabitants has so far reported 4,323,482 coronavirus cases and 102,309 deaths.

Although the death toll from the new coronavirus in Poland is among the highest in the world, the government has introduced much more limited measures, compared to other European countries, to curb its spread.

In Poland only 56.4% of the population has been vaccinated, a rate much lower than the European Union average. Suspicion of vaccines is widespread, especially in conservative, rural areas, the government’s electoral base.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ

.

Source From: Capital

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular