Poland strives to ensure safety from coronavirus - PM's aide
Poland is striving to ensure safety for its citizens in connection with the spreading coronavirus, prime ministerial aide Michal Dworczyk said on Friday after the prime minister's consultations on measures against the disease with provincial authorities.
Dworczyk informed a press conference held with Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski and Deputy Interior Minister Pawel Szefernaker that Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has designated PLN 100 million (EUR 23.1 million) for possible extra expenditures connected with the admission of coronavirus patients. He added that the government was preparing 30,000 additional coronavirus tests.
Dworczyk said coronavirus safety measures were being introduced "on many levels and in diverse institutions," with the aim of ensuring maximum protection from the virus.
Szumowski said that the prime minister has obliged provincial authorities to put clinics countrywide on alert to enable their prompt adaptation to treat coronavirus patients. He added that no coronavirus cases have been reported in Poland so far.
Szefernaker said that provincial authorities were holding daily meetings to monitor the coronavirus situation, some attended by the prime minister, the health minister and sanitary representatives. He added that provincial sanitary services have been obliged to round-the-clock readiness.
On Friday, Morawiecki wrote on Twitter that Poland's medical, uniformed and sanitary services were working to minimise coronavirus threats to Poles, and gave his assurance that the situation was being monitored constantly.
Later on Friday, Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said that the Polish army was prepared to aid medical services in case of the appearance of coronavirus in Poland.
The coronavirus-caused COVID-19 disease has so far infected 82,132 people and 2,801 have died from the disease. Besides China, from which it originates, the virus has been reported in Italy, Germany, France, Britain, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Norway, Russia and Austria, among other countries.
