Health minister says epidemic is waning in Poland

The epidemic is in decline and, although this is positively surprising, people should still use common sense, Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski appealed during a press conference on Friday.

In the opinion of Szumowski, the fact that the pandemic in Poland was winding down and phasing out was demonstrated by, for example, by the results of screening tests for people heading to sanatoriums. The percentage of ill patients in this group was below 1.7 per thousand.

"These are tiny per mil ratios of the active virus," he noted, adding that although the results were positively surprising, it does not relieve people of of the need to use common sense. He said that people should still remember about social distancing when dealing with others and wearing masks in confined spaces, for example, while in a store or on a bus.

The minister also referred to the presidential election in Poland, and noted that compliance with sanitary rules, as during the first round of election, limits the spread of the virus.

Szumowski encouraged people to take part in the second round of the election which will be held on Sunday, the more so that voting priority was introduced for people over the age of 60, carers with children under the age of 3, for the disabled and for pregnant women.

According to the minister, voting in a polling station is safer than going to the store, where restrictions associated with closed spaces, such as social distancing and the covering of the mouth and nose, are often broken.