The Polish Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that Poland would be donating 400,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Taiwan to help boost vaccination rates in the country. While a relatively small domestic coronavirus outbreak is well under control in Taiwan, only around 5% of its 23.5 million population are fully vaccinated, despite the government having millions of vaccines on order.
Polish officials say the vaccine donation is a reciprocal move after Taiwan donated 1,000,000 face masks, 5,000 protective suits, and 20,000 surgical gowns to Poland during the first wave of the pandemic. In an official statement, Polish officials stressed that “increasing the number of vaccinated people globally is in everyone’s interest.”
Slovakia, Czechia, and Lithuania also recently donated or said they would donate vaccines to Taiwan, which has repeatedly rejected doses from China, saying it has doubts about the safety of Chinese-made shots.
Source: Radio Poland
A group of Afghan evacuees arrived in the Polish city of Poznań on Saturday, as Poland has agreed to admit 500 Afghan nationals for a period of three months as a gesture of solidarity with its allies.
The group comprises people who worked with NATO during its 20-year mission in Afghanistan, according to Michał Dworczyk, a top aide to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters on Friday.
They are to be transported to a hospital for a 10-day covid-19 quarantine. Fifty of them are set to stay in Poland, while the rest will reportedly head to other destinations over the next quarter.
Source: Radio Poland
Poland continued its EuroVolley winning streak last night, defeating Greece 3-1 in front of a packed crowd at Tauron Arena in Kraków.
Last night’s match was the third straight tournament victory for the Polish men’s volleyball team. Earlier last week, the Polish team defeated Portugal 3-1 in their first match in the EuroVolley tournament and later defeated Serbia, the returning European volleyball champions, in a nail-biting tie-breaker on Saturday.
The Polish team returns to the court tonight to face off against Belgium; the match will begin at 8:30 pm in Tauron Arena.
Source: PAP
Poland demolished underdogs San Marino 7-1 yesterday in Poland’s fifth 2022 World Cup qualifier on Sunday ahead of a key match against England.
Thanks to a hat trick by substitute striker Adam Buksa and a brace by captain Robert Lewandowski, Poland consolidated its second place in its qualifying Group I, with 10 points after five rounds of fixtures.
Poland are ranked 27th worldwide by football’s governing body FIFA, while San Marino is next to last in the FIFA table, at No. 209.
The Poles, under their Portuguese manager Paulo Sousa, will now take on England in their next World Cup qualifying fixture in Warsaw on Wednesday.
The qualification stage for the 2022 World Cup runs until November 2021, while the tournament will be held in Qatar from November 21 to December 18, 2022.
Source: Radio Poland, PAP
Polish tennis phenom Iga Świątek has advanced to the round of sixteen in the women’s singles competition at the US Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in New York for the first time in her career.
The 20-year-old Pole, ranked world No. 8 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), defeated Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 yesterday to advance in the tournament. Swiątek will face off today against Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
In related news, Hubert Hurkacz crashed out of the US Open men’s singles on Thursday after losing to Italy’s Andreas Seppi, 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 6-7, in the second round.
The 2021 US Open will run until September 12.
Source: Radio Poland
Weather
Today will be partly cloudy and cool, with winds coming in from the southwest and very little chance of rain. Temperatures will peak around a high of 19°C, or 67°F, cooling off overnight to a low of 7°C or 45°F. Similar weather is expected for tomorrow, with temperatures continuing to warm up as the week progresses.
EPeck/pb
