Polish 4th wave of the coronavirus may culminate at the end of summer holidays

The 4th wave of coronavirus may culminate at the end of summer holidays. With a high level of vaccination - in the pessimistic scenario - you can expect several thousand new infections a day, says Minister of Health Adam Niedzielski. For now, the government is not planning to introduce mandatory vaccinations, but it does not rule out that before September such a decision may be made in relation to the most vulnerable group, i.e. group 0 (medical workers).

Niedzielski pointed out that for several weeks we have been dealing with an upward trend of new infections by an average of 20% week to week. According to the minister, this is already a "serious dynamics", although still - on average, there are about one hundred and several dozen cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections daily.

"The forecasts we have dealt with are that this wave will accelerate. It is rather certain that it will appear, that its climax or acceleration may occur at the end of the summer holidays" - Niedzielski said during the press conference.

"If we have a high level of vaccination, then we will go through this wave, perhaps noting several thousand infections - I am talking about the black scenario - but it will not then pose a threat to the hospital system, but above all such a real threat to public health," indicated the minister.

He stressed that the large numbers of new infections in the UK and Italy at present do not translate into a burden on the system and do not translate into a large increase in deaths.

When asked about the possibility of introducing compulsory vaccinations, the minister said that such a decision had not been taken, but if it had been introduced, it would first concern group 0 (medical workers). He stressed that currently the vaccination rate among doctors is very high - over 90%.

"If we were thinking about introducing such solutions, because so far no decision has been made, then of course we will start with the groups that are the most vulnerable, just like [...] in vaccinations we selected group 0 at the beginning and this group would be the one that could possibly be subject to such mandatory vaccination. Perhaps looking at this group more broadly, because it includes not only doctors, I am talking about nurses, paramedics, such a decision will have to be made before September. But this is not a decision that will be made this week," emphasized the minister.

When asked about the possibility of introducing the possibility of using, among others from restaurants, cultural facilities, cinemas and theaters only for the vaccinated, he said: "We rather agree that these are tools that will be used further, at the moment [...] we are trying to build incentive systems".

However, he did not exclude the possibility of using a second dose of a different preparation for vaccination than in the case of the first dose.

"Together with the Medical Council and professor [Andrzej] Horban, we are considering introducing a solution that would possibly allow the vaccines to be mixed. We have such a situation that some people who responded poorly to the first administration, perhaps this part should be vaccinated with a second dose of another preparation," he stressed.

So far, over 33.2 million vaccinations have been performed, and more than 16.6 million people are fully vaccinated. Today, the Ministry of Health reported 126 new cases of coronavirus infection.

Source: ISBnews