COVID-19 pandemic in Poland
The COVID-19 pandemic in Poland was a part of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 strain of coronavirus. As of 21 February 2024, Poland had 6,659,256 confirmed cases and 120,553 deaths due to COVID-19.[6]
In February and March 2020, health authorities in Poland carried out laboratory testing of suspected cases of infection by SARS-CoV-2, as well as home quarantining and monitoring. On 4 March 2020, the first laboratory confirmed case in Poland was announced in a man hospitalised in Zielona Góra. On March 10, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the local transmission phase of SARS-CoV-2 in Poland. On March 12, 2020, the first death from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Poland was that of a 57-year-old woman.
Polish authorities did not participate in the European Union tender procedure for purchasing COVID-19 pandemic related medical equipment, until 17 March 2020.
On 10–12 March 2020 lockdown-type control measures were implemented, closing schools and university classes, offices, and cancelling mass events, and were strengthened on 25 March, limiting non-family gatherings to two people and religious gatherings to six and forbidding non-essential travel. On 20 March 2020, the Ministry of Health officially declared an epidemic and on the same day tried to prevent medical personnel from commenting on the pandemic. The Polish Ombudsman Adam Bodnar defended medical personnel's right to speak publicly about the epidemic on constitutional grounds of freedom of speech and the right of the public to information. Doctors opposed the self-censorship orders.
Lockdown restrictions were tightened on 31 March 2020 by a government regulation, requiring individuals walking in streets to be separated by two metres, closing parks, boulevards, beaches, hairdressers and beauty salons, and forbidding unaccompanied minors from exiting their homes. Restrictions were relaxed starting 20 April, allowing religious gatherings and funerals to be held for up to a maximum of 50 people.
Starting on 1 April 2020, fatalities which were clinically or epidemiologically diagnosed as COVID-19 (U07.2) were also considered as COVID-19 deaths by NIPH–NIH.
Impact[edit]
Economy[edit]
The pandemic and the isolation measures in response to it had a serious impact on the Polish economy, especially commerce, tourism and the hospitality industries.[74]
In November 2020, The European Jamboree 2020, an event for 30,000 scouts and guides in Gdansk, due to take place in July 2020, and initially postponed to July 2021, was ultimately cancelled.[75][76][77]
Solidarity with other countries[edit]
Polish authorities and citizens took several solidarity actions to support people in other countries affected by the pandemic and to help in repatriations.[83][84][85]
The Polish government sent medical supplies to Italy and San Marino, including 20,000 litres of disinfectants to Veneto and San Marino, produced by the state-owned Polfa Tarchomin, and a load of medical supplies on 7 April 2020.[83] The Polish Centre for International Aid sent a team of 15 Polish doctors and paramedics to a field hospital in Brescia, Lombardy.[86] Doctors from WIM Warszawa share their Italian COVID-19 experience with Armenian, Azeri and Moldovan colleagues. Polish farmers allocated some of their production to Italian doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.[87] The Italian flag was shown as an illumination on many buildings in Poland.[88][89] Polish authorities sent Spain 20,000 litres of Trisept Complex disinfectant liquid.[90]
A medical mission from Warsaw's Military Institute of Medicine went to Chicago on 23 April 2020 to help in COVID-19 management.[91][92] On 13 April 2020, the Representation of Solidarity Fund PL in Georgia provided spraying equipment, 500 visors and 800 reusable face masks to municipal authorities in Rustavi and Marneuli (Lower Kartli), Gori (Inner Kartli) and to a clinic in Nikozi, near the demarcation line with South Ossetia.[93] The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs allocated 1.2 million PLN to projects aimed at supporting emergency services in Georgia and Ukraine.[94] A convoy of the Polish State Fire Service carrying humanitarian cargo for the National Medical Response Center arrived in Minsk in Belarus on 24 April, for medical institutions in Grodno Oblast, including 50,000 litres of disinfectant, 30,000 litres of antiseptic, 100,000 surgical masks and chloroquine.[95]
The Polish company Wipasz donated 100,000 reusable protective masks to Kazakhstan, laptops for Kazakhstani schoolchildren.[96][97] A team of Polish eight doctors, nurses and paramedics from Polish Center of International Aid participated in the World Health Organization support program, spending a ten-day mission training staff in Kyrgyz hospitals.[98]
The Polish community participated in grassroots solidarity actions around the world. Volunteers of the Polish Catholic Mission in Freiburg, Breisgau, organised help and emergency counselling,[99] teachers from Polish schools in the Czech Republic sewed masks and provided them to senior peoples' homes,[85] the Polish community in Canada printed 3D protective materials and helped in shopping, the Polish Medical Association from Berdyansk in Ukraine organised telephone consultations, the Association of Poles in Spain nasz Dom – Nuetra casa provided legal and psychological support and sewed protective clothing for nursing homes.[100]
The Polish airline LOT used Twitter to organise a "#LOTdoDomu" ("#aFLIGHTHome") return program of 2,000 people to their countries of origin, including 18 other member states of the European Union (EU).[84] The programme was completed on 5 April 2020. LOT also organised 388 special charter flights over 22 days which brought 55,000 Polish citizens and workers to Poland. Polish authorities offered ferry and dedicated train services, and 18 convoys of 800 vehicles, escorted by police, to help Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians to return to their countries.[101]
Censorship of medical personnel[edit]
On 18 March 2020, an experienced midwife in a Lesser Poland Voivodeship hospital published a report on Facebook on the conditions of medical personnel and the situation of the hospital in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 19 March, she was fired from the hospital[102] by Marek Wierzba. He stated that medical staff should be responsible, reliable and should publish true information. He also stated that the dismissed midwife had been spreading panic. Polish Minister of Health Łukasz Szumowski stated that she shouldn't have been fired.[103]
On 20 March, the secretary of state of the Ministry of Health, Józefa Szczurek-Żelazko, sent a written statement ordering voivodeship medical consultants to not make statements about SARS-CoV-2, the epidemiological situation, the risks for medical staff or methods of protection from infection, unless they had first consulted with the Ministry of Health or Główny Inspektorat Sanitarny. Szczurek-Żelazko motivated the order by the need to provide correct, unified information and to avoid unjustified unrest in the medical community.[104]
Doctors opposed the self-censorship orders; A surgeons group, Porozumienie Chirurgów SKALPEL, described the order as blackmail and said that it risked catastrophe. The group stated that the COVID-19 pandemic showed Poland as "not at all prepared for crisis situations" with a "lack of equipment, basic personal protective gear and disinfectant materials and a lack of standards and procedures".[105]
On 25 March 2020, the Polish Ombudsman Adam Bodnar sent a letter to the Minister of Health, Szumowski, stating that medical staff's freedom of speech and is guaranteed under Articles 2 and 54 of the Polish Constitution and the right of the public to information is guaranteed under Article 61 of the constitution. Bodnar stated that firing or punishing doctors for informing the public during the pandemic could be a violation of the "obligatory standards". Bodnar asked if Szumowski was aware of the situation and requested a clarification of policy.[102]
Additional information[edit]
COVID-19 versus non-COVID-19 death classification[edit]
On 26 March 2020, the Polish health authorities' classification of COVID-19 deaths only included deaths of people with lab-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, classified as U07.1 under the ICD-10 international disease classification system. (U07.1[117]).[118] COVID-19 deaths under U07.2, which had been defined by WHO one day earlier[119] to mean deaths when "COVID-19 is diagnosed clinically or epidemiologically but laboratory testing is inconclusive or not available",[117] were not yet included in the NIPH–NIH instructions.[119] Stefan Karczmarewicz, writing in Polityka, interpreted this as an attempt by authorities to lower the official COVID-19 death toll in Poland. He argued that there was a policy of limiting the number of SARS-CoV-2 tests, which together with the exclusion of the ICD-10 category U07.2 implied an underestimate of the true COVID-19 death toll.[120][121] NIPH–NIH stated that the omission was unintentional due to the timing, and updated its instructions on 1 April, instructing doctors to also use the U07.2 definition of clinically or epidemiologically classified COVID-19 cases.[119] NIPH–NIH stated that the WHO considered it "irrelevant" to distinguish between U07.1 and U07.2. On 6 April 2020 Bartosz Fiałek, a Polish rheumatologist, claimed that the NIPH–NIH instructions were unclear, and that it appeared that U07.2 was not being used for COVID-19 deaths in hospital in which SARS-CoV-2 tests had not been carried out, nor for people dying of COVID-19 in quarantine.[122] Starting on 1 April 2020, fatalities which were clinically or epidemiologically diagnosed as COVID-19 (U07.2) were also considered as COVID-19 deaths by NIPH–NIH.[119]
Suspected COVID-19 deaths in quarantine[edit]
As of 28 March 2020, people in Poland who died in quarantine from suspected COVID-19 were not tested post mortem for SARS-CoV-2.[123] On 21 March 2020, a 45-year-old man who was quarantined in Głogów after returning from outside of Poland and who had shown COVID-19 symptoms was found dead by police. As of 26 March 2020, the prosecutor investigating his death had not decided whether or not to carry out a SARS-CoV-2 laboratory test on the corpse.[123] The dead body of a 50-year-old woman who returned from Germany to Konin and felt ill was found by her family on 24 March. Główny Inspektorat Sanitarny (GIS, the national health agency) refused to test the corpse for SARS-CoV-2. As of 27 March 2020, GIS had not stated what procedures were in place for post mortem tests.[123] As of 6 April 2020, it was not known if any laboratories in Poland were qualified to carry out post-mortem SARS-CoV-2 tests.[122]
Unofficial deaths[edit]
There were several claims of COVID-19 deaths unreported by the Ministry of Health. In early April, Warsaw City Council stated that there had been 32 COVID-19 deaths in Warsaw, while official statistics only listed eight. The Minister of Health stated that the difference was that deaths were officially allocated according to the official places of residence of the deceased. The mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, stated that the data were carefully checked, and that 18 of the 32 were registered as officially living in Warsaw, not eight.[124]
Disagreement between local media, the head of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, and GIS continued for several days in early April in relation to the 4 April death in a Grudziądz hospital of a 64-year-old woman from Grudziądz who was SARS-CoV-2 positive.[125] Gazeta Pomorska stated that the head of the voivodeship only accepted including the 64-year-old's death in official reports after the newspaper "intervened". As of 8 April 2020, according to Gazeta Pomorska, the Ministry of Health still listed only one COVID-19 death from Grudziądz (that of an 80-year-old), while local branches of the health agency stated zero SARS-CoV-2 infections from Grudziądz in their reports.[126]
