BOCHNIA, Poland (AP) – Polish hospitals faced difficulties over the Easter weekend with a large number of people infected with COVID-19, after a huge increase in infections in Central and Eastern Europe in recent weeks.
New tougher pandemic restrictions were ordered in Poland for a period of two weeks around Easter, in order to decrease the rate of infection. The country has set new records for more than 35,000 daily infections in the past two days, and deaths have been in the hundreds each day.
The purpose of the new restrictions was to prevent large meetings over the long weekend from culminating on Easter Monday. Meanwhile, the government is also trying to accelerate the vaccine’s launch in the country, but the pressure on the country’s hospitals is still relentless.
On Easter Sunday, coronavirus patients occupied almost all of the 120 beds at Bochnia Municipal Hospital, 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the city of Krakow, in the south of the country.
“It is a difficult situation, because there are many patients,” said Bozena Gicala, a nurse who treats patients at COVID-19, who spoke to Associated Press reporters on a visit to the hospital.
She said the support of her colleagues was instrumental in managing the unprecedented situation.
Another nurse, Ewa Ptak, said that she herself had COVID-19 and is on a mission to help those who are suffering more than she.
“Thank God I was out of the hospital and I was fine. But I know what it is and I just want to help people, ”said Ptak.
One patient, Edward Szumanski, 82, expressed concern about how some people still refuse to see the virus that killed more than 2.8 million people worldwide as a threat. Poland saw about 55,000 of those deaths.
“The disease is certainly there and it is very serious. Those who did not pass, those who do not have them in the family, may be deluding themselves, but the reality is different ”, he said.
Szumanski said he is also concerned that ICU vacancies in hospitals may soon run out and that more people will die. There have been warnings and reports in the Polish media about how the country’s health system is reaching a breaking point.
The hospital’s medical director, Jaroslaw Gucwa, said the pandemic has worsened by those who believe it is all a scam and avoid masks or ignore restrictions.
The hospital is so stressed that it discharges patients who still need more treatment “to make room for those in serious condition. This is not a normal situation, ”he added.
Poland recorded 204 new deaths from COVID-19 on Easter Sunday, but the numbers in the past few days have been much higher, mostly around 500 a day. On Wednesday, they reached a maximum of 653 for this year.
“The hardest part is when you tube your friends and leave them in the ICU,” said Gucwa.
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