Mateusz Morawiecki told an online press conference that despite calls from various sectors, the government decided to follow epidemiologists' advice and extend the lockdown in the gastronomy, culture and fitness sectors.
"It is important to save hundreds of thousands, or even millions of jobs in the future and to keep the number of new infections at the current level,” Morawiecki said.
However, he also added that shopping malls are to reopen under strict sanitary regulations and with customers limits on November 28.
Schools across Poland are to be shut, with online distance learning provided until at least December 23. The government will announce its further decisions concerning the country's education system after that date, Morawiecki said.
According to the Prime Minister, Poles should get ready for a period of "100 days of Solidarity, and after that time it is highly probable we will have a vaccine.”
Morawiecki said last week that millions of vaccines against the coronavirus were likely to reach his country next spring as part of a European deal with drug makers.
The European Union in the middle of last week struck a deal to buy up to 300 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine from US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
Morawiecki said last week that his government has set up a working group with experts from Pfizer amid efforts to make a COVID-19 vaccine available to Poles as quickly as possible.
Poland on Saturday reported 24,213 new coronavirus infections and 574 more deaths, bringing its total number of cases to 843,475 and fatalities to 13,288.
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Source: PAP, IAR