Deputy Minister of Health Waldemar Kraska informed on Tuesday about 19 thousand 652 new coronavirus infections, including 709 Omicron cases and 377 deaths. This result is a huge growth of the pandemic by 72% comparing the data on a weekly basis.

A week ago, there were 11 thousand 402 cases of infections and 493 deaths while two weeks ago, 11 thousand 667 people were infected and 446 deaths were recorded.

Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Health, Adam Niedzielski, said at a press conference that Poland is already dealing with the fifth wave of the pandemic. Its peak is expected in mid-February. According to the ministry’s predictions, 60,000 new cases of coronavirus may be recorded daily.

Minister Niedzielski emphasized that under the crisis management provisions, the ministry is planning to fight the pandemic making preparations in various areas, including an increased number of beds, medications, oxygen or work of Medical Rescue Teams. The minister noted that they are exposed to the risk of a very high burden that they did not deal with in any of the former waves. The number of daily cases is envisaged as many as 60 thousand, according to other forecasts it may be even 140 thousand.

Niedzielski also referred to the resignation of 13 out of 17 members of the Medical Council, an advisory body operating at the prime minister. Experts who resigned indicated that their recommendations were regularly ignored by the government.

The minister explained that he persuaded all those who resigned to continue their mission and despite the emerging discrepancies as to the possibility of implementing the recommendations that appeared from the Medical Council. “We had to take into account not only these purely medical factors. We function in a specific socio-economic reality and all these dimensions are also the basis for making decisions”, said Niedzielski.

The minister announced that a new Medical Council to fight the coronavirus will be appointed by the prime minister, in an enhanced formula. In addition to doctors, the council will include economists and sociologists – experts who will help and advise the prime minister on how to design not only the fight against the pandemic but also the process of recovering from it in a few months.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński