Of the new cases confirmed on Saturday, the most—8,367—were in the central Mazowieckie region, which includes the national capital Warsaw.
Meanwhile, 7,603 new infections were reported in the densely populated southern coal mining region of Silesia.
The latest deaths in Poland’s coronavirus outbreak are 184 people with pre-existing medical conditions and 47 others who died directly because of COVID-19, the health ministry said.
Two days earlier, the Polish health ministry reported a record daily rise in coronavirus infections, confirming 57,659 new cases, the most since the pandemic hit the country almost two years ago.
On April 8, 2021, the country reported its highest daily toll of 954 deaths related to the coronavirus.
Poland's first case of coronavirus infection was reported on March 4, 2020.
14,804 in hospitals, 989,320 quarantined
The Polish health ministry announced on Saturday morning that 14,804 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals nationwide, 1,078 of them on ventilators, with a further 989,320 people quarantined for possible coronavirus exposure.
Meanwhile, 3,936,019 people have now recovered from COVID-19 throughout the country, the health ministry also said.
Poland this week shortened the COVID-19 quarantine period from 10 to seven days and made free tests available to the public through pharmacies.
The government has made remote working mandatory for public-sector employees until at least the end of February as the country enters a fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic amid the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference at the end of last week that authorities would work to expand the number of hospital beds available to coronavirus patients to help deal with a spike in cases driven by the omicron variant.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski warned that coronavirus infections in the country would hit new records during the next few weeks, surpassing 60,000 daily cases and possibly approaching 140,000.
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Source: IAR, PAP