Polish schools switch to virtual classes until January 9 | Polish PM opens Poland’s longest road tunnel | Pole comes runner-up in Junior Eurovision Song Contest | Gdańsk councillors appeal for footbridge across Gdańsk bypass

Polish schools switched to remote teaching from yesterday in an attempt to limit the spread of Coronavirus as the country prepares for the „Omicron” variant of the virus to sweep the country. All primary and secondary schools will facilitate remote education until January 9th. Virtual classes will be held along the same lines as during the previous waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Education Minister. Meanwhile, kindergartens will continue to operate as normal, while special-needs schools will be allowed to switch to online lessons subject to a decision by individual headteachers.

Source – Polskie Radio

Poland’s longest road tunnel has been opened yesterday in Warsaw by the country’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The 2,335 metre long tunnel completes the capital’s southern ring road which aims to allow drivers to bypass the city centre and thus reduce congestion on the capital’s busy roads.

The three lane tunnel runs under the residential district of Ursynów and connects to a new bridge over the Vistula river which was opened around a year ago. After the bridge opening last year the PM said that the massive road project was one of the biggest in the country’s modern history. The entire project carries a price tag of around PLN 4.6 billion.

Source – Polskie Radio, Notes from Poland

A Polish teenager has come runner up in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest at the weekend. 13 year old Sara James competed alongside young people from 19 other European countries in the competition held in Paris on Sunday, with her song „Someone”.

She was pipped to the post by Armenian singer Maléna who crooned her way to victory with a pop song called „Qami Qami” which garnered 224 points to Sara’s 218. The young singer comes from the town of Słubice in the Western part of Poland, near the border with Germany.

Source – Polskie Radio

And finally, Gdańsk councillors have petitioned the Minister of Infrastructure in a bid to secure funding for a footbridge crossing at Gdańsk Osowa.

Currently there is no footbridge between the suburb of Gdańsk and the rest of the city which effectively means that the residents of Osowa are isolated from the rest of the city. Councillors speaking on behalf of the 30,000 or so residents said that they must take their life into their own hands if they wish to cross the existing road bridge on foot over the bypass which leads to Gdańsk Oliwa and the Oliwa forest area.

Source – Radio Gdansk.pl

Weather

Today will be a snowy day with some sunny intervals in a moderate breeze and temperatures of -1 degrees centigrade (30 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, dropping to -4 degrees overnight. Tomorrow will remain cloud with a chance of snow showers in a moderate breeze and temperatures of 0 degrees during the day and -3 degrees overnight.
That was the Radio Gdańsk English news and weather.

RGen/MC