The Polish President Andrzej Duda’s office has confirmed that he has contracted coronavirus after testing positive for the virus. The president is now in isolation and is said to be feeling well and not suffering any serious symptoms. Duda was vaccinated against the coronavirus with two doses in April and June last year and also received a booster shot for added protection on December 17th. The Polish president previously tested positive for COVID-19 in October 2020. He recovered after suffering only mild symptoms.

Source – Polskie Radio, Radio Gdańsk

Poland’s Health Minister has ruled out any further COVID-19 restrictions as the Omicron variant of the virus continues to spread around the country.

During a press conference he added that in recent days there has been a „worrying trend of increasing infections”, which he added is related to the holiday season and the increase in the number of tests performed. He said that expected the number of infections to peak towards the end of January and planned to increase the number of additional beds for patients with covid by up to 60,000 if it was needed.

Source – Radio Gdańsk

Epiphany processions are set to be held in over 660 towns and small localities across Poland today, the Feast of the Epiphany.

In Gdańsk, the annual procession will take place near St Mary’s Basilica in the old town at midday. This year will be the 13th year that the event will take place. In previous years the event has been very popular with several thousand people taking part. During the procession the story of the Three Kings is told along with appearances of Herod who tries to redirect the procession and there will be carol singing at the end of the event. The Feast of the Epiphany is one of the oldest and most important holidays in the Roman Catholic Church. It commemorates the arrival of the Three Wise Men in Bethlehem to pay tribute to Jesus, 12 days after his birth. It is a public holiday in Poland.

Source – Polskie Radio

And finally, 146 people will stand trial in connection with the extortion of benefits from the country’s social security system.

The Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk has completed a massive investigation discovering that the ZUS system was defrauded for over PLN 6 million from around mid-2015. The organizers were three people representing a company registered in Warsaw and operating in Wejherowo near Gdańsk. The accused offered pregnant women the establishment of a fictitious business activity in order to obtain maternity and sickness benefits which the women received half of and the fraudsters pocketed the other half. The accused are charged with fraud, forging documents and making false statements. They face ten years in prison.

Source – Radio Gdańsk

Weather

Today will be a cold and cloudy day with a risk of heavy snowy showers in a moderate breeze and temperatures of 1 degrees centigrade (37 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day and -5 degrees overnight. Tomorrow will remain cloudy in a moderate breeze with temperatures of 1 degree during the day and -1 degree overnight.

Martin Caren/ua