Poland's Covid infections reach new high as Omicron takes hold

Warsaw, Jan 20 (IANS) Poland has reported 30,586 new Covid-19 infections, the highest number since the spring of last year.

Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said during a press conference on Wednesday that nearly 20 per cent of new cases are of the Omicron variant, and the spread of it has "officially become a fact", Xinhua news agency reported.

"The situation is dramatic," he said, adding that the expected daily number would exceed 50,000 next week.

"We have decided to introduce compulsory working from home for all civil servants," he said, asking businesses to follow suit and let their employees work from home whenever possible.

The Polish Health Ministry has also reported 375 more deaths over a period of 24 hours.

With a vaccination rate of around 56 per cent, Poland is lagging behind other European Union countries.

Since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, Poland has registered about 4.3 million cases of Covid-19 infection. A total of 103,062 people in the country have died as a result of the pandemic.