Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced over the weekend that Poland will maintain most lockdown restrictions through Christmas in response to continuing high hospitalization and infection rates.
Restaurants, cinemas, theaters, and gyms will remain closed until December 27, and schools across Poland will remain closed until at least December 23, with potential changes announced after that time. Additionally, the annual feria holiday will take place from January 4-18 for all of Poland, rather than being staggered by province.
Beginning next weekend, however, shopping malls and other nonessential shops will be allowed to reopen with restrictions on the number of customers and strict sanitary guidelines in place. The move comes just as the holiday shopping season is set to begin, with many retailers hoping to recoup their losses from previous lockdowns.
Souce: Radio Poland, Radio Gdańsk
COVID-19 Infection and mortality rates remain high
The Polish Health Ministry reported a slight drop in new coronavirus cases yesterday with 18, 467 new infections and 330 deaths, down slightly from the over 25,000 infections and a record number of deaths reported on the previous weekend.
The hardest-hit regions continue to be Mazowia and the capital of Warsaw (2,607), followed by the Wielkopolskie province and the city of Poznań (2,070). Pomerania’s rates have been steadily increasing, and it currently ranks 6th among Polish provinces, with 25 additional deaths and 1,715 new infections reported yesterday, mostly in the cities of Gdańsk and Gdynia.
Officials have emphasized that without continuing vigilance, rates may spike again. In a recent press conference, Prime Minister Morawiecki emphasized that „we must all expect much more from ourselves; we have a period of 100 days of solidarity ahead of us.” He ended on a positive note, however, that „at its end, it is highly likely that a vaccine will be available.”
Source: Radio Gdańsk, Ministerstwo Zdrowe
Polish ski jumpers third in World Cup opener
Polish ski jumpers finished third in this weekend’s World Cup team competitions in Wisła, in the mountains of southern Poland.
The Polish team, comprising Piotr Żyła, Klemens Murańka, Dawid Kubacki and Kamil Stoch, finished behind Germany and Austria, with Żyła finishing fifth in the overall individual competition.
Despite beating out Norway, Japan, Slovenia, Russia, and Switzerland. Dawid Kubacki, the best Pole in the team competition with two jumps of over 130 meters, said that the team „had an appetite for more.”
The Polish team will have another chance to prove themselves next weekend, as the World Cup continues in Ruka, Finland, from November 27-29.
Source: Radio Poland, https://www.fis-ski.com/
Shakespeare festival launches online
Despite continuing challenges posed by the pandemic, the 24th annual Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival, which was rescheduled from this summer, launched successfully over the weekend in a new virtual format.
The program, which runs all this week through November 29, consists of a mix of musical, theatrical, and cinematic performances, along with ShakespeareOFF events, debates, and meetings with various artists.
Live performances – including 9 premieres – will be streaming live from the stages of the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theater and Klub Żak here in Gdańsk, as well as the Teatro Verdi in Pisa and the Teatr Modrzejewska in Legnica.
All events will be available to watch free of charge online via the Video on Demand (VOD) platform of Teatr Szekspirowi after registering at http://vod.teatrszekspirowski.pl.
Source: Trójmiasto.pl, gdansk.pl
Weather
Today will be mostly cloudy and cool, with a strong breeze coming in from the west and a chance of rain in the afternoon. Temperatures will peak around a high of 6°C, or 45°F, dropping slightly to an overnight low of 7°C or 43°F. Skies are set to clear off overnight with a chance for some sunshine tomorrow morning.
EP/am
