Poland reported a record 29,978 new daily coronavirus cases on Wednesday, according to health ministry data, the highest since the pandemic's start, as the country grapples with a worsening third wave fuelled by the variant first found in Britain.
Poland also reported over 50,000 coronavirus-related deaths in total since the pandemic began, with 575 daily coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday in a new record for 2021.
The previous daily record of 27,875 new cases was reported in November.
Since the start of the pandemic, Poland has reported a total of 2,120,671 infection cases and 50,340 deaths.
Poland will likely toughen COVID-19 restrictions by Thursday, prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Tuesday.
"The health minister and I are in constant contact with our experts from the medical council, we also analyse the environment around us and we will communicate this set of additional restrictions the day after tomorrow at the latest," Morawiecki told a news conference.
The government ordered theatres, shopping malls, hotels and cinemas to close last week after a rise in cases, driven by the variant of the coronavirus first spotted in Britain.
But there have been growing media reports that it will have to bring in more curbs ahead of the busy Easter holidays, usually marked by packed church services and family gatherings in the deeply Catholic country.
"We cannot remain indifferent to this situation and we will have to take decisions that will be communicated tomorrow," the prime minister's top aide Michał Dworczyk told Polsat News on Wednesday. He declined to provide details on the curbs.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters, Polsat News