The daily number of new COVID-19 infections is increasing in Poland. In Tuesday’s report on the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health reported 1104 new cases. This is the highest figure since mid-April, which was when we last saw thousands of recorded infections per day. Experts are concerned about new variants of the virus.
The Ministry of Health recorded 1104 new cases of COVID-19 infections in Tuesday’s report. 328 of these were re-infections, while 766 were new infections. One person died last day because of COVID-19, suffering from co-morbidities. The highest number of new infections was recorded in the Mazowieckie voivodship – 170, the lowest in the Opolskie voivodship – 13.
Professor Krystyna Bieńkowska-Szewczyk, a virologist and head of the Department of Molecular Biology of Viruses at the Inter-University Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Gdańsk and the Medical University of Gdańsk, notes that it is currently difficult to establish how many people are actually infected.
“Carried out at the peak of the pandemic, the monitoring programme is not existing at the moment”, says the expert, stressing that few people currently test for COVID-19, which makes it difficult to indicate how many people are actually ill.
Scientists have in recent months warned of new variants of the coronavirus. In mid-August, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognised the BA.2.86 mutation, known as Pirola, as a ‘variant to be observed’. In the same month, the WHO sounded the alarm that another variant called Eris had begun to spread rapidly around the world. Experts warned that the wave of infections through it could accelerate in the autumn.
At the same time, another variant was recently detected in the United States. Labelled HV.1, it is suppressing the other mutations. A report on this was issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It reads that HV.1 is already responsible for 25 % of new COVID-19 cases. In August, it was responsible for only a few percent of all infections.
Arkadiusz Slomczynski