Poland is set to go into a partial national lockdown for three weeks from Saturday amid a resurgence of COVID-19 infections. Health Minister Adam Niedzielski told reporters on Wednesday that restrictions already in force in four regions badly hit by the epidemic would be extended to cover the entire country. The move comes as Poland on Friday reported 25,998 new coronavirus infections and 419 more deaths, bringing its total number of cases during the pandemic to 2,010,244 and fatalities to 48,807. Hotels, cinemas, theatres and sports facilities nationwide will have to shut, while shopping malls will only be allowed to sell essential items. Meanwhile, young children across the country will return to remote classes for three weeks. „If this move does not put an end to the epidemic, or at least slows the third wave, then the next steps will be a typical lockdown, a situation where we will completely close everything,” Niedzielski said. He added that the more contagious so-called British variant of the virus was spreading fast and now accounted for 52 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the country.
Source – Polskie Radio, PAP
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has encouraged Poles to vaccinate themselves against COVID-19 using a vaccine developed by drug maker AstraZeneca.
He was speaking after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Thursday said that the AstraZeneca vaccine was “safe and effective.” The EU’s drug watchdog told an online news conference it was convinced the benefits of Astrazeneca’s vaccine outweighed the risks following an investigation into reports of blood disorders that prompted more than a dozen nations to suspend its use. He noted that some of the countries that had suspended vaccinations with the AstraZeneca shot were resuming the use of the vaccine. Germany, France and Italy announced at the start of this week they were suspending AstraZeneca shots even though the World Health Organization (WHO) said there was no proven link to serious side effects, and people should not panic.
Source – Polskie Radio
An adviser to the EU’s top court has supported Poland in a prolonged dispute with Germany over gas flows through a pipeline from Russia, a website has reported.
Advocate General Manuel Campos Sánchez-Bordona, an adviser to the Court of Justice of the European Union, on Thursday issued an opinion in which he sided with Poland in a case involving gas supplies through the Opal pipeline from Russia, the energetyka24.com website reported. The German government in November 2019 appealed against a European Court of Justice ruling earlier that year to limit gas flows through the Opal pipeline, according to a report at the time.
Source – Polskie Radio
And finally, a unsolved murder case near a town some 60 km from Gdańsk and dating back 17 years may have finally been solved thanks to advanced in forensic criminology.
The case from 2004 involved a 47 year old woman who was found murdered near the town of Stężyca in Kashubia. No one was every apprehended for the murder, but prosecutors have used advances in forensic science to re-examine forensic evidence leading to the arrest of 33 year old man who was 16 at the time of the murder and was interviewed as a suspect but never convicted due to insufficient evidence. The accused is awaiting trial.
Source – trojmiasto.pl
Weather
Today will be a cloudyday with a moderate breeze and temperatures reaching only 2 degrees centigrade (36 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, dropping to -5 degrees overnight. Sunday will remain cloudy with chances of rain at times and temperatures reaching 5 degrees during the day and -2 degrees overnight.
RGEN/MC
