Poland to reopen restaurants and hairdressers on May 18

Poland will reopen restaurants and hairdressers next Monday as it eases coronavirus-linked restrictions, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday.

Poland, the largest economy of the European Union's eastern members, started relaxing some of its curbs on public life in April. Earlier in May, it allowed hotels, shopping centers, and kindergartens to reopen. "At least to some extent we have contained the epidemic, therefore we can gradually unfreeze the economy," Morawiecki told a news conference, a day after Poland saw its largest rise in coronavirus cases in a single day.

Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski told reporters that the coronavirus reproduction rate had fallen below 1 in Poland, meaning that statistically speaking one infected person led to fewer than one new infection in other people. Morawiecki also said that schools would partially reopen to provide daycare for children in the first three years of primary school.

The further easing of restrictions came amid a dispute between the government and opposition over how and when to hold elections which were originally scheduled for May 10. Late on Tuesday, Poland's lower house of parliament voted in favor of legislation allowing for a mixture of postal voting and traditional voting at polling stations.

On Wednesday Morawiecki said he hoped the election would be held in June.