Of the new cases confirmed on Thursday, the most—4,071—were in the western province of Wielkopolskie, which is home to the major city of Poznań.
Meanwhile, 3,906 new infections were reported in the central Mazowieckie region, which includes the national capital Warsaw.
The latest deaths in Poland’s coronavirus outbreak are 229 people with pre-existing medical conditions and 87 others who died directly because of COVID-19, the health ministry said.
On Wednesday, Poland confirmed 372 deaths and 28,859 new coronavirus infections nationwide, compared with 378 deaths and 22,267 fresh cases a day earlier.
On January 27, 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.
18,018 in hospitals, 286,453 quarantined
The Polish health ministry announced on Thursday morning that 18,018 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals nationwide, 1,067 of them on ventilators, with a further 286,453 people quarantined for possible coronavirus exposure.
Meanwhile, 4,745,861 people have now recovered from COVID-19 throughout the country, the health ministry also said.
Polish Health Minister Adam Niedzielski last week announced new, more lenient COVID-19 isolation and quarantine rules and said the pandemic was beginning to ease in the country.
Poland has since lifted the quarantine requirement for those who have come into contact with an infected person and shortened the isolation period for people with COVID-19 from 10 to seven days.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference in Warsaw in the middle of last week, Niedzielski said: “We are in fact dealing with the beginning of the end of the pandemic.”
In a previous statement last month, he warned that coronavirus infections in the country could hit new records amid the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
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Source: IAR, PAP