Deadly Pandemic Reaches Poland
On March 4th
Man returning from Germany is first Coronavirus case
By Robert Strybel
Warsaw Correspondent
WARSAW–Poland, which had held out agaisnt the spread of the deadly Coronavirus longer than most European countries, finally succumbed on March 4th. Polish Health Minister Łukasz Szumowski called a special, nationally televised press conference to announce that country’s first case of the Chinese-originated pandemic had been confirmed.
Szumowski explained that the infected man had recently traveled to neighboring Germany where around 240 people had been diagnosed with the disease, The patient lives in Poland’s far-western Lubuskie region near the German border and is undergoing treatment at a infectious-disease hospital in Zielona Góra. “Let’s not put pressure n him or his family because after all he is a sick person who needs peace and quiet,” the minister appealed to the media.
The day before the announcement, Poland was a veritable island of tranquility encircled by Coronavirus cases in neighboring Germany, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. Knowing that the disease’s appearance was only a question of time, the Polish authorities had carried out an extensive program to prevent its spread. Across the country 79 special contagious-disease units have been set up as well as numerous emergency testing labs,
A total of 560 Poles with flu symptoms had been tested, but all had proved negative, another 68 were under observation in hospitals for suspected Coronavirus infection and some 500 have been quarantined in their homes, Szumowski explained. When asked about the patient’s symptoms, he mentioned the typical problems – a cough and high fever well over 38°C (100.4°F).
From January 1st to March 4th 93,076 cases of the deadly infection including 3,202 related fatalities had been reported, The most patients (2,983) died in China, where the outbreak was first detected late last year in the central city of Wuhan. In Europe, northern Italy has experienced the most cases including 80 Coronavirus-related deaths.
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