On March 28, the obligation to wear masks, isolation and quarantine disappears

- We analyzed the situation of the collective return of children to school and the large influx of refugees. Neither of these phenomena contributed to any higher infections. None of these elements has broken the downward trend, the minister explained. In Poland, the dominant sub-variant BA.2 is more infectious than the original Omikron, which caused high waves of infections in Western Europe, but in the opinion of Polish decision-makers - such a scenario will not be realized in our country. What boosted the statistics there translated into the stabilization of the number of infections.

Therefore March 28th will be:

- abolition of the obligation to wear masks (the rule does not apply to medical entities),

- abolition of home isolation,

- lifting of home quarantine for the infected's household members and all quarantines (including entry quarantines).

The Minister of Health emphasized that the obligation to cover the nose and mouth will continue to apply in all medical entities, while he recommends masks where we will be staying in large groups of people, especially in closed spaces.

According to prof. Grzegorz Juszczyk, director of NIZP-PZH, extensive analytical models of the course of the pandemic indicate that "taking into account all the variables, such as returning children to school, increasing our daily mobility, the influx of new residents to Poland, i.e. war refugees, for whom we have also identified the level of immunization, which is now even 80 percent in Ukraine ", we do not have to worry about a significant increase in the number of infections. The main reason is the high level of immunity - antibodies (after vaccination or natural contact with the virus) currently have 90-95 percent. Polish population, and although this immunity will decline over time, the epidemic situation should only improve in the coming months.

An important change concerns testing: from April 1, the SARS-CoV-2 test can be performed free of charge only on the recommendation of a doctor. People who test positive will receive 'normal' sick leave and self-isolate. - We are starting to treat the coronavirus in exactly the same way as other infectious diseases, such as the flu - said the Minister of Health. Isolation and quarantine may come back, but only locally, if there are outbreaks of an epidemic - the health department will then be able to use such tools.

- The epidemic continues. Perhaps in some time it will go into an epidemic threat - emphasized Adam Niedzielski.