WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s Health Ministry reported 5,068 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, only the second time the figure has passed 5,000 in a 24-hour period since the pandemic began.
The European Union member state announced new restrictions on Saturday to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus after reporting record infections for a fifth successive day.
The measures included setting aside special shopping hours for senior citizens and increasing funding to care homes.
The latest figures, released on the Health Ministry’s Twitter account, showed there had been 63 new coronavirus-related deaths and that Poland had carried out 33,800 tests in the previous 24 hours, up from 25,000 tests the previous day.
The country of 38 million has now reported a total of 135,278 cases of the novel coronavirus and 3,101 deaths.
The ministry said that as of Tuesday COVID-19 patients occupied 5,669 hospital beds and were using 421 ventilators, compared with 5,262 and 404 respectively a day earlier.
($1 = 3.7895 zlotys)
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
