PHOTO / WORLD
Poland goes into partial lockdown as COVID-19 cases top 2 mln
By Xinhua Published: Mar 21, 2021 08:46 AM
A woman wearing a face mask walks past some pigeons in central Warsaw, Poland, on March 20, 2021. The government of Poland announced a new nationwide partial lockdown on Friday after the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic exceeded two million in the country.(Photo: Xinhua)

A woman wearing a face mask walks past some pigeons in central Warsaw, Poland, on March 20, 2021. The government of Poland announced a new nationwide partial lockdown on Friday after the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic exceeded two million in the country.(Photo: Xinhua)


 

A woman wearing a face mask walks on a street in central Warsaw, Poland, on March 20, 2021. The government of Poland announced a new nationwide partial lockdown on Friday after the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic exceeded two million in the country. (Photo: Xinhua)

A woman wearing a face mask walks on a street in central Warsaw, Poland, on March 20, 2021. The government of Poland announced a new nationwide partial lockdown on Friday after the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic exceeded two million in the country. (Photo: Xinhua)


 


 

A woman wearing a face mask walks past a closed store in central Warsaw, Poland, on March 20, 2021. The government of Poland announced a new nationwide partial lockdown on Friday after the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic exceeded two million in the country.(Photo: Xinhua)

A woman wearing a face mask walks past a closed store in central Warsaw, Poland, on March 20, 2021. The government of Poland announced a new nationwide partial lockdown on Friday after the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic exceeded two million in the country.(Photo: Xinhua)


 


 

A woman wearing a face mask walks on a street in central Warsaw, Poland, on March 20, 2021. The government of Poland announced a new nationwide partial lockdown on Friday after the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic exceeded two million in the country.(Photo: Xinhua)

A woman wearing a face mask walks on a street in central Warsaw, Poland, on March 20, 2021. The government of Poland announced a new nationwide partial lockdown on Friday after the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic exceeded two million in the country.(Photo: Xinhua)


 
The government of Poland announced a new nationwide partial lockdown on Friday after the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic exceeded two million in the country.

Starting on Saturday, only a select number of shops -- among them supermarkets and pharmacies -- located in shopping malls with over 2,000 square meters of retail space will be allowed to operate. Service providers, such as banks, hairdressers and opticians, have also been given a pass.

Cinemas, theaters and museums will have to remain closed, and schools will return to online learning.

The restrictions have already been in place in four of Poland's 16 provinces, including Mazovia, where the capital Warsaw is located.

On Friday, 25,998 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed, taking the total since the start of the pandemic in March last year to 2,010,244. Since then, 48,807 people in Poland have lost their lives to the coronavirus.

According to the Health Ministry, over 60 percent of the new infections involve the coronavirus variant firstly detected in Britain, which is more contagious and more lethal than the original strain. "Also, an increasing number of children are among the infected," the ministry's Press Secretary Wojciech Andrusiewicz told journalists. Currently, 400 children are hospitalized with symptoms, he said.

Seventy-one percent of all hospital beds reserved for COVID-19 patients are in use in the country, as well as 73 percent of ventilators. A temporary hospital was opened on Thursday in Krakow in southern Poland, with new field hospitals planned to be opened in Radom (east-central Poland) on Saturday, and in the south-central city of Katowice on Monday.

To date, Poland has vaccinated over 4.7 million people and is among the European countries that have not suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after concerns about side effects.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in an increasing number of countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 264 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 82 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on March 16.