From midnight, Poland will introduce a mandatory 10-day quarantine for travellers from outside the Schengen Area, Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska said on Wednesday.
Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska said at a press conference on Wednesday that due to reports on new variants, more dangerous than "the more classic" coronavirus, Poland has launched a system of monitoring of the said variants.
He added that daily reports confirmed that more mutations were appearing in the country and spreading faster than before, and therefore, decision was made to take preventive measures.
"We reintroduce quarantine for people arriving from abroad. The quarantine will me mandatory for people travelling from countries outside of the Schengen Area and non-members of the European Economic Area" - Kraska said.
He informed the quarantine duty will be in place starting Wednesday midnight. The quarantine will last 10-days with a possibility of ending after 7 days in case of a negative test result. He underscored this measure was meant to protect Poles from the new variants of the virus.
The quarantine regulations will not apply to people who are fully vaccinated. "I think it's obvious that vaccinated people are not bound by the restrictions that we've introduced, and it that's yet another reason to really get vaccinated. That's the only way to prevent infections spread" - Kraska said. He added that children under 12 years of age would not have to be placed in quarantine and take tests.
Poland is introducing a mandatory seven-day quarantine for all travellers from Britain in a bid to curb the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
Britain is currently seeing a rise in cases due to the more contagious Delta variant, which was first identified in India.
"The decisions made on quarantine for travelers arriving from Great Britain are intended to reduce the risk of transmission of the Delta coronavirus variant from the endangered area," Health Minister Adam Niedzielski was quoted as saying by state news agency PAP.
"We must take care of our citizens and their security" - he stressed.
The tighter rules had earlier been applied to travellers from Brazil, India and South Africa.
Poland reported 165 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, a fraction of the number recorded at the height of the third wave in spring when as many as 35,251 daily cases were recorded. However, despite the low overall numbers, there has been an increase in Delta variant cases.
Poland, a country of around 38 million people, has reported 2,879,192 cases of the coronavirus and 74,893 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters