Of the new cases confirmed on Thursday, the most—2,909—were in the central Mazowieckie region, which includes the national capital Warsaw.
Meanwhile, 2,507 new infections were reported in the southern province of Małopolskie, which is home to Poland's second-largest city of Kraków.
The latest deaths in Poland’s coronavirus outbreak are 343 people with pre-existing medical conditions and 138 others who died directly because of COVID-19, the health ministry said.
On Wednesday, Poland confirmed 684 deaths and 16,173 new coronavirus infections nationwide, compared with 493 deaths and 11,406 fresh cases a day earlier.
On April 8, 2021, the country reported its highest daily toll of 954 deaths related to the coronavirus.
On April 1, 2021, the Polish health ministry confirmed 35,251 new single-day cases, the most since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020.
Poland's first case of coronavirus infection was reported on March 4, 2020.
16,307 in hospitals, 202,367 quarantined
The Polish health ministry announced on Thursday morning that 16,307 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals nationwide, 1,654 of them on ventilators, with a further 202,367 people quarantined for possible coronavirus exposure.
Meanwhile, 3,751,459 people have now recovered from COVID-19 throughout the country, the health ministry also said.
Health Minister Adam Niedzielski has told reporters that the country is bracing for a peak in COVID-19 omicron cases in late January when up to 60,000 hospital beds could be needed for patients.
Public health authorities in the middle of last month confirmed Poland's first case of the omicron COVID-19 variant. Since then 233 more omicron cases have been detected, according to the health ministry's spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz.
A range of coronavirus restrictions took effect in the country in December as it seeks to fend off the new, highly contagious strain of the coronavirus.
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Source: IAR, PAP