Poland expects to receive around 840,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by US drug maker Moderna by the end of the first quarter of this year, the prime minister’s top aide has said. He added that almost 70,000 doses were expected to arrive in January.
He was speaking after after the EU drug regulator, the European Medicines Authority, on Wednesday approved the shot for use on people aged over 18. Hours later the European Commission gave the vaccine the final go-ahead for rollout across the European Union. The government expects that 2.94 million people will be vaccinated for COVID-19 in the first quarter of this year.
Source – Polskie Radio
Polish-US ties will stay strong under Biden, says Trump’s envoy to Warsaw
Polish-US relations are strong and will stay that way after Joe Biden takes office in Washington, the American ambassador to Warsaw said after protesters supporting outgoing President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol. Four people died and 52 were arrested after hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump broke into the US Capitol building on Wednesday to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory, news agencies reported. Trump’s envoy to Warsaw, Georgette Mosbacher, said in a statement on Thursday that „what happened last night at the Capitol does not represent who we are or what we stand for as Americans.”
Source – Polskie Radio
Polish president, first lady extend Orthodox Christmas greetings
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda have sent greetings to members of their country’s Orthodox Christian community as it celebrates the Christmas holidays. Meanwhile, Poland’s Roman Catholics on Wednesday celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany 12 days after Christmas. About 93 percent of Poles declare themselves to be Catholics, according to statistics released by church officials in 2018. The Polish president last month sent greetings to members of his country’s Jewish community as it celebrated the holiday of Hanukkah.
Source – Polskie Radio
50 year old telegram found in the walls of renovated Gdańsk train station
And finally, bricklayers working on the restoration of Gdańsk’s main railway station have discovered a 50 year old message in a bottle hidden in the walls of the station. The message was written on a telegram and put inside the bottle where it has lain undiscovered for half a century. The message in the telegram recounts the tragic events of the 1970 shipyard strikes mentioning that part of the station burnt down and that the writer of the note was part of the team working on the renovation works. A president of the board of PKP, the main train operator in Poland, said that the relic was of important historic importance and highlighted the importance of train stations alongside other public buildings as silent witnesses to history.
Sources – trojmiasto.pl
Weather
Today will be another cloudy day with a light winds and chances of snow on higher ground. Temperatures will reach 1 degree centigrade (32 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, dropping to -4 degrees overnight. Tomorrow will continue to be cloudy with chances of snow showers and temperatures of 1 degree centigrade during the day and -2 degrees overnight.
That was the Radio Gdańsk English news and weather.
Martin Caren/mw
