“There are 319 new cases of coronavirus infection. These are weekend figures and they are always lower than during the week. No one has died from COVID-19 infection”, said Waldemar Kraska, deputy health minister.

He appealed to remember, despite the holidays, that the coronavirus is still with us and large increases in the number of infections are observed in Germany, France and Italy.

“In Poland, too, the upward trend continues. On 17 July, nearly 400 new cases were reported and on 16 July there were 2,131. The seven-day average for Poland is 1,450. These levels have tendency to rise”, warned Waldemar Kraska.

The new coronavirus variants that have emerged may be more infectious, but they do not produce as many clinical symptoms. Doctors, who take care of patients, stress that the disease process is definitely milder than what it was in previous waves of the pandemic”, said Deputy Minister Kraska.

This is so far confirmed by statistical data. The number of hospitalised patients in Poland does not exceed 450, which is important because the Ministry of Health makes its actions dependent on this indicator.

Waldemar Kraska pointed out that the COVID strategy adopted a limit of 5,000 hospitalisations as a point beyond which “we will want to introduce some recommendations”. It should be recalled that the last time such a level of hospitalisation due to COVID-19 was recorded in Poland was during the end of the previous wave of coronavirus, i.e. at the turn of March and April this year.

According to the Deputy Health Minister, the coronavirus “will stay with us forever”. Therefore, we must not only acquire immunity but also move past the presence of COVID-19 in the population.

Referring to the low number of tests performed, Kraska said that at the moment the Ministry does not test populationally, because that was the recommendation of the World Health Organisation. It tests those people who have symptoms,” he added.

Adrian Andrzejewski