Speaking to reporters at a news conference in Warsaw, Adam Niedzielski said that “infections should fall relatively sharply in February, and essentially February will see ... the end of the serious threat to the healthcare system.”
He added he hoped "that in March we will be able to make bold, full decisions to lift restrictions ... or to introduce milder rules so that we can enter the spring functioning normally."
'Beginning of end' of pandemic
Niedzielski told reporters: “I was often pessimistic before, but in this situation, I am optimistic - we are in fact dealing with the beginning of the end of the pandemic.”
“We see that the countries which have experienced the peak of this fifth wave before us are already lifting restrictions and this is the scenario we expect,” he also said.
Niedzielski told the news conference that “dynamic increases in daily cases are not leading to equally dynamic increases in hospitalisations,” with the number of hospitalisations remaining “relatively small.”
Moreover, he added, “patients are spending a week in hospital during the fifth wave on average, compared with 10 or more days in the fourth wave.”
Isolation to be shortened to 7 days from Feb. 15
Given the current situation, as of February 15, “the period of mandatory isolation for those with COVID-19 will be shortened from 10 to seven days,” Niedzielski announced.
In addition, for those sharing a household with someone who contracts the coronavirus, the quarantine period will last only as long as the infected person remains in isolation, he said.
He also announced that the number of COVID-19 beds in the country would be reduced from 30,000 to 25,000, with 5,000 beds made available to patients with other conditions, the state PAP news agency reported.
Also, as of February 10, people who had direct contact with an infected person will no longer be required to go into quarantine, Niedzielski said.
From February 11, those arriving in Poland from inside the EU's passport-free Schengen travel zone will not have to go into quarantine, either. Meanwhile, arrivals from outside the Schengen zone will have their mandatory quarantine shortened from 10 to seven days, according to Niedzielski.
Education and Science Minister Przemysław Czarnek told reporters that older elementary-school children and secondary-school students would return to in-person classes a week earlier than planned, on February 21, the PAP news agency reported.
Poland on Wednesday reported 46,872 new coronavirus infections and 310 more deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the country's total number of cases during the pandemic to 5,271,016 and fatalities to 107,204.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, TVP Info