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The president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, has contracted the corona virus. The 48-year-old is fine, the presidential office announced on Twitter on Saturday. He is in quarantine and is in constant contact with the responsible doctors after a test on Friday came back positive.
“The president is a young man. I think he will survive the infection without any problem,” said Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska of the RMF radio station. As president, Duda has predominantly representative duties, but is close to the ruling national-conservative PiS party.
It assumes all recent Doubts contact persons would have to be quarantined as well, Kraska said. This also includes tennis star Iga Swiatek, who recently surprisingly won the French Open and was the first Polish woman to triumph in a Grand Slam tournament. The 19-year-old received the Golden Cross of Doubt Merit for her accomplishments on Friday.
It is unclear when exactly Duda became infected with the corona virus. On Monday he participated in an investment forum in the Estonian capital, Tallinn. There he also met with the head of state of Bulgaria, Rumen Radew, who later had to go into corona quarantine.
The strictest measures are aimed at slowing the spread.
Also in Poland, with its 38 million inhabitants, the crown figures have risen sharply recently, authorities reported a new record on Friday with more than 13,600 new infections. Therefore, the government tightened protection measures. Starting on Saturday, only a maximum of five people are allowed to meet, face-to-face lessons in schools are only available until third grade, restaurants can only sell food away from home. Older people were advised to stay home whenever possible.
Due to the significant increase in new corona infections in Poland, the Warsaw National Stadium is also becoming a corona hospital, as the pandemic has brought the healthcare system to the brink of collapse.
The opposition had recently stepped up criticism of the government for tackling the pandemic, accusing it of inadequate preparation for the second corona wave. In recent polls, PiS and Duda have lost popular support.
