Possible new restriction for people returning from the UK

The Ministry of Health on Tuesday informed about 188 new coronavirus infections and death of 29 COVID-19 patients. In recent weeks in Europe, especially in the UK, a significant rise in Delta variant infections has been recorded. Public health experts in Germany warn that this variant will soon spread across the country, despite progressing vaccination programme.

Asked if he was worried with the spread of the Delta variant during summer holidays, the spokesman for the Health Ministry Wojciech Andrusiewicz reminded that "after returning to Poland with no (negative) test, we must go into quarantine".

"We accept all kinds of tests carried out within the EU borders. For arrivals from outside the Schengen Area, we must take a test here in Poland, and most likely a new quarantine restriction will be introduced for those returning from the United Kingdom. We don't exclude further restrictions for people arriving from this destination" - he explained.

He said that information on this issue would be announced in the coming days. "We certainly want to introduce wider restriction than for other arrivals" - he added.

"In Poland, the transmission of the Delta variant is not so common like in the UK, so we should not compare both situations" - said the spokesman and added that so far only 90 cases of this variant have been reported in Poland. "Let me remind that the first case in Poland was reported approx. 1,5 months ago, and since then there have been 90 cases in 45 days."

"Of course, 90 is not a small number, but luckily we detect all those cases quite quickly. Most often, outbreaks occur between co-workers. (...) Therefore, it's easy to quarantine all people who had contact with the carriers" - he added.

Andrusiewicz also informed that those carrying the Delta variant "are mostly people returning from abroad, or who had contact with persons who had returned from high-risk destinations". "Majority of the infections happened outside Poland. The infected person are not Polish citizens. That's why we detect them quickly and they usually do not have contact with many people" - he said.