This takes the total number of confirmed cases over 500,000 as new restrictions came into force on Saturday to curb the pandemic's spread.
The health ministry said on Saturday that 349 more people had died of the virus. On Friday, Poland saw a record 445 coronavirus-related deaths. Since the pandemic began, 7,636 have died in connection with the COVID-19 respiratory disease, officials announced.
Of the new cases confirmed on Saturday, the most were in the southern coal mining region of Silesia - 4,290, the highest number ever reported for a Polish province. Meanwhile, 2,998 new infections were reported in the central region of Mazowieckie, which contains the national capital Warsaw.
Meanwhile, 200,510 people in total have recovered from COVID-19.
Infections have risen sharply over the last month, with doctors telling Polish media that the country is running out of hospital beds, ventilators and medics.
Poland’s prime minister on Thursday announced a swathe of new restrictions aiming to curb the escalating epidemic. Mateusz Morawiecki warned that if the number of coronavirus infections exceeded 70 to 75 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, a “national quarantine” (i.e. lockdown) would be announced, with “very strict bans on travel and movement”.
Meanwhile, health minister Adam Niedzielski told reporters that Poland could see 25,000 to 30,000 new coronavirus cases a day, adding that was an “optimistic scenario.”
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Source: IAR, PAP, Reuters