William Shakespeare has officially become the second person in the world to be vaccinated against COVID-19 at a hospital in central England yesterday. The 81-year-old follows in the footsteps of 90-year-old Margaret “Maggie” Keenan, who became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine after the UK approved it last week.

As the UK celebrated the launch of its historic nationwide vaccination program, the British press joined in the festivities with tongue-in-cheek headlines welcoming “The Taming of the Flu” and “The Gentlemen of Corona.”

The UK is set to continue vaccination of at-risk patients at some 70 hospitals around the country, with several million more doses set to arrive later this month.

Source: nytimes.com, guardian.com

Poland secures 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced yesterday on facebook that Poland has purchased over 60 million doses of coronavirus vaccines from six leading world producers.

Morawiecki’s announcement came as officials began to release details of the vaccination project, which Michał Dworczyk, head of the Prime Minister’s office, called “the greatest key challenge for Poland next year.”

Dworczyk told reporters in a press conference yesterday that vaccinations would start in January, but the exact date would depend on producers. “Until the manufacturer obtains all approvals for these vaccines to be used in the EU, we will not start the distribution and vaccination program,” he detailed.

According to Dworczyk’s previous statements, some 8,000 vaccination sites are expected to be set up across Poland as it prepares to roll out its COVID-19 immunization program.

Poland on Tuesday reported 8,312 new coronavirus infections and 411 additional deaths, bringing its total number of cases to 1,076,180 and deaths to 20,592.

Source: Radio Poland, PAP

“Witcher” game studio set to release new title

After significant delays, Polish game developer CD Projekt is set to release their next highly-anticipated game, Cyberpunk 2077, at 1:00 CET tomorrow morning.

In some ways similar to the popular “Witcher” games, “Cyberpunk 2077” will be an open-world RPG with an action-adventure story set in the futuristic megalopolis Night City. Also like the Witcher, a Netflix anime series based on the game, entitled “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,” is already in production for a 2022 release.

CD Projekt became one of the most well-known and profitable video game studios in the world due to its wildly successful “Witcher” video game franchise based on the works of Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. The company’s current market value is estimated at over PLN 39 billion (nearly EUR 9 billion).

Source: Radio Gdańsk, https://www.cyberpunk.net/pl/en/

Virtual Polish film festival launches in Gdynia and online

The 45th annual Polish Feature Film Festival kicked off yesterday in Gdynia in a modified virtual format, with eight films currently vying for the competition’s coveted Golden Lion.

Fourteen films were set to vie for the festival’s top prize, but due to licensing restrictions, only eight can be shown in streaming format. Among the top contenders are “25 Years of Innocence. The Case of Tomek Komenda” by Jan Holoube, “Truth Makes Free” (Zieja) by Robert Gliński, and “Kill It and Leave This Town” by Mariusz Wilczyński.

Gdynia mayor Wojciech Szczurek acknowledged that “this year’s form of organizing the festival is certainly not ideal, but in this difficult year for all of us, it turned out to be the only one possible.” The festival’s artistic director, Tomasz Kolankiewicz, went on to ensure film lovers that the general public would have access to the competition’s titles as soon as cinemas were reopened.

The annual Polish Film Festival is Poland’s most prestigious showcase of new, home-grown cinema, and is one of the oldest such events in Europe. The festival runs from now until Saturday; details of the screenings and other festival events are available online at https://festiwalgdynia.pl

Source: Radio Poland

Weather

Today will be partly cloudy and cold, with a strong breeze coming in from the southeast and very little chance of rain. Temperatures will remain just above freezing, with a high of 1°C, or 33°F, dropping to below freezing overnight with a low of -3°C or 27°F. Similar weather is expected for the rest of the week, with a chance for rain or snow Thursday night.

EP/pb