The pandemic is no longer a threat to the health of the healthcare system

Recent epidemic reports show that the number of hospitalizations remains at around 3.5 thousand. About 50 people nationwide need to be connected to a respirator.

- In previous waves, the number of hospitalizations exceeded 20,000, and we treated 2-3,000 people as part of ventilator care. The pandemic is no longer a huge threat to the efficiency of the healthcare system, said the minister.

As pointed out by the head of the Ministry of Health, this state of affairs is primarily influenced by the vaccination coverage of the society. De facto mutations are not less and less dangerous, but we are better immune to them due to vaccination or disease.

- Our immune system has already got used to this virus and we are not dealing with an overactive immune system that led to the disease. The only indication that we are talking about now is the continuation of vaccinations - added Adam Niedzielski.

We would like to remind you that in Poland, the second booster dose is being vaccinated with a preparation adapted to protect against the Omikron BA.1 variant. The first booster was vaccinated by 12 million people. The second, so far, 2 million people.

- This data is not very impressive. The vast majority, i.e. 1.5 million people, are people vaccinated with the old preparation. This state of affairs is influenced by psychological factors related to the level of risk. It is falling, but it still affects all of us and if we want to have peace of mind, especially in the period of increased work and study, now is the optimal time to get vaccinated - emphasized the minister.

Meanwhile, many people underestimate the symptoms of the disease because it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them from those associated with the flu or other upper respiratory tract infection. The diagnosis can be made by performing an antigen test, available e.g. GPs.