A press conference by the Polish Prime Minister and Health Minister took place today – Friday 30th October 2020, where information regarding access to cemeteries for All Saints, place of work and other restrictions were announced.

Incredibly, though understandable in the current pandemic, the PM announced the closure of cemeteries across Poland for All Saints/All Souls weekend.

LIVE UPDATES (Latest Update at top)

UPDATE City of Kraków Response to PM announcement:-

Due to the decision of the Prime Minister,

Zarząd Dróg Miasta Krakowa is holding back changes in the organisation of traffic around the cemeteries. There will also be no special public transport lines that were supposed to commute there this weekend.

  • Prime Minister: if this increase is very large, closer to the exponential, then we will have to implement further solutions in a few days

  • Prime Minister: so far we are following a two-week cycle, we are extending further restrictions by another two weeks, I do not exclude that here these restrictions may be extended by more than two weeks
  • THE MAIN PART OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE IS CONCLUDED and moves to questions from journalists.
  • SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR TAKES THE FLOOR (Professor Andrzej Horban)
    • the decision to devote all our strength to testing symptomatic people is effective, because thanks to this we are able to stop the spread of the epidemic

 

  • Niedzielski: We want to introduce testing with antigen tests on a larger scale
  • Niedzielski: we want family members of the sick person to no longer have to wait for a call from the sanitary department, we assume that this quarantine will be automatic
  • Niedzielski: Last week we prepared a forecast that assumed two variants of the epidemic development, one – an exponential variant, and the other – related to a further increase in the incidence, but based on a linear increase
    • the actual number of cases is between the two scenarios
  • HEALTH MINISTER TAKES OVER PRESS CONFERENCE

  • The Prime Minster concluded his part of the press conference and handed over to the Health Minister.
  • The Prime Minister refers to the social protests that have been going on for over a week. He announces that he will support the presidential bill to amend the act on abortion.
    • Prime Minister to the protesters: I understand your anger, but I urge you to stay at home, especially for the sake of seniors

      The prime minister on the president’s abortion bill – he practically solves the problem

  • Prime Minister: it is very likely that a vaccine will appear in January for those who need it most – the elderly and medical workers
  • Prime Minister: I also appeal to entrepreneurs and company directors to work remotely
  • Prime minister appeals to seniors: our appeal takes the form of an alarm and a strong disposition – that the seniors stay at home, so that they do not go outside for at least the next two weeks
    • ‘Prime Minister to seniors: your life depends on it’
  • Prime Minister: we have a simple directive for public administration – all who can must work remotely
  • The Prime Minister refers to the social protests that have been going on for over a week. He announces that he will support the presidential bill to amend the act on abortion.
  • The government decided that the cemeteries would be closed for All Saints/All Souls from 31st October to 2nd November.
    • I decided that tradition is less important than life
  • The Ministry of Health confirmed 21,629 new cases of coronavirus infection in Poland on Friday
  • On Friday, for the first time, the number of active cases, i.e. people currently infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, exceeded 200,000. The number of people who have recovered from the beginning of the epidemic is 134 724 according to official statistics of the Ministry of Health.
  • The number of people tested for the coronavirus increased. At the very beginning of the pandemic, it was a few or several dozen tests a day, now 60-70 thousand a day are tested.

See Youtube feed below.
https://youtu.be/WXFBkPOS9fg

 

ALL SAINTS IN NON-COVID TIMES
If you’re new to Kraków and not yet experienced All Saints, here’s one of our previous articles on what to expect in normal times.

All Saints 2019

 

 

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