The Polish government has announced that it will limit travel to southern Africa, a region that has reported cases of the new Omicron strain.
“In connection with the emergence of a new mutation, we have prepared an urgent package of restrictions. We are introducing a ban on flights from seven African countries,” said the Health Minister.
As of November 30, all foreign nationals who have traveled through Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe in the last 14 days will not be allowed to enter Poland.
Among other health precautions, unvaccinated people arriving from other non-EU countries will be subjected to 10-14 days of mandatory quarantine.
But, travelers who can produce a negative result on day 8 would be freed from isolation.
As per domestic restrictions, the government also reduced the capacity of pubs, restaurants, theaters and even hotels from 75 percent to 50 percent.
These measures may be unpopular but, given the new pandemic developments, they are required.
According to data released by the Health Ministry, the country of 37.9 million people reported 19,074 new infections and 526 deaths in the last 24 hours, compared to 13,115 cases reported on Monday.
The healthcare system also processed 21,172 Covid-19 hospitalizations in the prior 24 hours, up from 20,521 the day before, with 1,825 patients on ventilators. As of today, Poland only has 635 ventilators available.
With 41,675,389 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, Poland has managed to fully vaccine 53.8 percent of its population making it one of the European countries with one of the lowest immunization rates.
However, the government said on a private television station that youngsters aged 5 to 11 will likely receive their first Covid-19 vaccine shot around December 15.
“It seems it’s going to happen in mid-December,” Kraska said. “Of course, if this vaccine arrives before that time, we’ll introduce it earlier.”
“The realistic date seems to be around December 15,” he added.