WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Poland’s government ordered stricter pandemic measures for the two-week period surrounding Easter, describing the new rules Thursday as an attempt to limit human contacts amid a deadly surge in the coronavirus pandemic.
Details of the new restrictions - which include the closure of nursery and preschools, large furniture and home improvement stores and hair and beauty salons - come as Poland registered a record number of new coronavirus cases for the second consecutive day.
The new restrictions, which also include limits on the number of people in churches, take effect on Saturday and will remain in place until April 9. They come on top of other restrictions already in effect that have gradually been ramped up as infections, hospitalizations and deaths have mounted amid another surge of infections over the past several weeks.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he knew the more severe measures come during a period when families traditionally spend time together for Easter, and it would require a sacrifice from Poles. He called for “national solidarity” to save lives, jobs and a health sector approaching its limits.
“We are one step away from crossing the border beyond which we will not be able to properly heal our citizens,” Morawiecki said. “We will do everything to avoid such a scenario.”
The Health Ministry said Thursday it recorded more than 34,000 new daily cases - thousands more than the 30,000 that set a bleak record on Wednesday. There were also 520 new deaths recorded Thursday.
“Poland is in the most difficult moment of the pandemic in 13 months,” Morawiecki said.
After the announcement, people rushed to get appointments at hair and beauty salons before the lockdown, causing a popular beauty salon booking app to crash.
Morawiecki hailed mass vaccination as the key to Poland eventually emerging from the pandemic, noting that medical workers, who have already been vaccinated in high numbers, are already seeing a sharp drop in illness and death.
Elsewhere in the region, Hungary, with the world’s highest per capita death rate, set a record for daily deaths on Thursday with 252. That brings the death toll to nearly 19,000 in the country, which has a population of less than 10 million.
In Poland, officials say the “third wave” of the pandemic was being driven by the highly contagious virus variant first detected in Britain, which now makes up most of the new cases. With a population of 38 million, Poland has reported over 50,000 deaths in the pandemic.
“The evolution of the virus and the British mutation is leading not only to more infections, but also causing more hospitalizations,” Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said.
The higher numbers in Poland come amid more testing. The government has recently made it easier for people to get tested for COVID-19, dropping its earlier requirement for a doctor’s referral and allowing people to request a test online.
Vaccine rollouts in much of Central Europe are happening too slowly to hold back the new surge - even in Hungary, which has one of the European Union’s highest vaccination rates due to its reliance on Chinese and Russian vaccines in addition to the Western ones approved by the EU.
In Hungary, additional lockdown measures introduced March 8 haven’t yet produced the desired results as the number of new infections and hospitalizations surpass peaks set in December and intensive care units fill up.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said Hungary could begin opening schools once the number of people who have received at least a first dose of a vaccine reaches 2.5 million, which he projected would come no earlier than April 12. Primary school and kindergarten teachers will be offered early vaccination to ensure that schools can be opened safely, Gulyas added.
___
Justin Spike in Budapest contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at:
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine
https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
Please read our comment policy before commenting.