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Face masks will be required in Poland until summer: official

15.12.2020 08:45
Poles will have to wear face masks until summer, even though coronavirus vaccines are set to start arriving next month, an official has warned.
Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska
Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska Photo: PAP/Rafał Guz

Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska said: “For technical reasons, we are not able to vaccinate all Poles within one or two weeks, so despite the fact that it [a vaccine] will appear, we will still be living with certain restrictions in place until the summer: face masks, social distancing and disinfection.”

Kraska said that 1.1 million vaccines would arrive in Poland in January, enough for 500,000 health service workers, who will be among the first to be offered shots.

Every person inoculated will need two shots, administered several weeks apart.

Kraska added that celebrities, politicians and doctors would take part in a campaign to promote vaccinations against COVID-19.

The government is expected to greenlight a national vaccination programme on Tuesday.

Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said on Monday that the spectre of a third wave of the coronavirus epidemic in Poland was “very real.”

Niedzielski also told reporters he would recommend that tougher measures to battle COVID-19 which came into effect across Poland last month should be extended until at least January 17.

Poland on Monday reported 4,896 new coronavirus infections and 96 more deaths, bringing its total number of cases to 1,140,572 and fatalities to 22,960.

(pk/gs)

Source: PAP