Poland's daily coronavirus cases hit record high for fourth day running

WARSAW: Poland reported a record daily rise in coronavirus cases for the fourth consecutive day on Friday, with 4,739 reported new infections, the Health Ministry said, as the country readies for a renewal of some restrictions from Saturday.

Wearing masks outside will be compulsory across the country, and a tightening of measures in schools is also expected to be announced.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki did not rule out introducing a state of emergency if the number of cases continues to grow.

Some groups who also oppose vaccinations have said they will organise protests around the country on Saturday against the order to wear masks.

In total, the country of 38 million has reported 116,338 infections and 2,919 deaths in the pandemic.

The biggest spike in new cases on Friday was reported in the southeast, where hospitals are running out of COVID-19 beds, according to local media reports.

The ministry said that as of Friday COVID-19 patients occupied 4,407 hospital beds all over the country and were using 320 ventilators, compared with 4,138 and 296 respectively a day earlier.

Ministry data also showed that while the number of new cases rose by 459 from Thursday, the number of tests conducted fell by more than half to 21,500.

This was caused by erroneous data sent by some laboratories and the figure would likely be fixed later in the day, the ministry's spokesman said.

"There will be no shortages of tests in Poland," he told a news conference.