British covid variant rampant in north Poland

The British variant of the Covid-19 virus has spread rapidly in Poland's northern Pomorskie province, and is currently responsible for most new infections in the region, the province's head physician told PAP on Saturday.

Jerzy Karpiński said that it was now responsible for up to 80 percent of all infections, and warned that unlike previous varients, the British strain also attacked younger people.

Karpiński said the situation in the province was very serious, and suggested that it might now be hitting its peak in the current wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

A health ministry report has named Pomorskie as the 6th most Covid-infected province in Poland, with the 4th-highest infection rate per 100 thousand inhabitants (6.37).

Close to 27,000 inhabitants of Pomorskie are currently quarantined, and a further 1,494 new infections have been reported in the province since Friday.

Since March 6 Pomorskie has been under tightened lockdown restriction. All hotels, cinemas, museums, art galleries, theatres, operas, philharmonic halls, swimming pools, gyms, saunas, solariums and sporting facilities are closed, and shopping centres are partially closed down.

Schoolchildren in forms 1 to 3 will continue learning in a hybrid stationary/online system.

Michał Sutkowski, the head of the Warsaw Family Physicians organisation, told PAP that Poland should expect a further rise in Covid-19 infections and deaths in the coming weeks.

On Saturday the Polish health ministry reported 21,049 new Covid-19 infections and 343 deaths.