Poland hits COVID case record, as Eastern Europe battles surge

Poland reported 53,420 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, according to health ministry data, joining Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania in hitting its highest infection rate of the pandemic, driven by the Omicron variant. "We have to be ready for a further rise in cases, even above 60,000," a Health Ministry spokesperson told a news conference.

Poland reported 53,420 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, according to health ministry data, joining Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania in hitting its highest infection rate of the pandemic, driven by the Omicron variant.

"We have to be ready for a further rise in cases, even above 60,000," a Health Ministry spokesperson told a news conference. Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska told the website interia.pl that the highly transmissible Omicron variant currently accounted for around 40% of cases.

In an attempt to combat the surge, Poland has stepped up testing, performing a record 173,000 official tests in 24 hours. It has also said older primary and secondary schoolchildren must switch to remote learning from Thursday.

Poland has so far registered 104,373 deaths from COVID-19 among its population of 38 million.