Poland reports daily record of almost 30,000 new coronavirus cases

FILE PHOTO: Medical staff treat a patient inside of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) coronavirus disease ward at the Interior and Administration Ministry (MSWiA) hospital in Warsaw, Poland, March 8, 2021. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland reported a record 29,978 new daily coronavirus cases on Wednesday as the government prepares to toughen restrictions amid a worsening third wave of the pandemic.

The government ordered theatres, shopping malls, hotels and cinemas to close last week after a rise in cases, fuelled by the more contagious variant first found in Britain.

There have been growing media reports that it will have to bring in more curbs ahead of the busy Easter holidays, usually marked by packed church services and family gatherings in the deeply Catholic country.

“We have to suffocate the third wave. That’s why we will announce new restrictions…that will be enforced during the week before and the week after the (Easter) holidays,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference on Wednesday.

He did not provide details.

Poland also reported 575 daily coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday in a new record for 2021.

The country has reported a total of 2,120,671 confirmed coronavirus cases and 50,340 deaths.

Poland’s last daily record was 27,875 new cases reported in November 2020 at the height of the pandemic’s second wave.

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