“You could say that we are at the beginning of a third wave,” Wojciech Andrusiewicz told reporters.
He said that a period which saw the number of new infections falling had “slightly lulled our social vigilance.”
Poland on Friday reported 8,777 new coronavirus infections and 241 more deaths, bringing its total number of cases during the pandemic to 1,623,218 and fatalities to 41,823.
Health Minister Adam Niedzielski. Photo: PAP/Wojtek Jargiło
Poland’s Health Minister Adam Niedzielski warned earlier this week that infections in the country were starting to rise again in a worrying new trend.
Meanwhile, the official spearheading the government’s inoculation drive condemned the “absolute irresponsibility” of rowdy crowds last weekend in the popular southern mountain resort of Zakopane.
Visitors flocked to the town after hotels and ski slopes were allowed to reopen on Friday. Police were called out to dozens of incidents, while revellers on Zakopane’s well-known Krupówki street started an impromptu dance.
Poland in the middle of last month reopened schools for young children after a prolonged period of distance learning.
In a further easing of coronavirus curbs, shopping malls, museums and art galleries across the country were allowed to reopen earlier this month.
A host of other restrictions on public life, including the closure of restaurants and gyms, remain in place.
(pk)
Source: IAR/PAP