Sharjah24 – Reuters: Poland may decide to introduce new restrictions if cases of new coronavirus infections continue to grow, Polish health minister Adam Niedzielski told radio station RMF FM on Monday, as the country prepares for the spread of the Omicron variant.

Poland has been dealing with persistently high daily case numbers in a fourth wave that forced authorities to tighten restrictions in December.

"If we see this week that we have a continuation of the upward trend in infections, with roughly 20,000 hospital beds taken, which is still very high, yes, we will be making further aggravating decisions," Niedzielski said.

"We will talk about schools, the closure of shopping malls, for example, but I do not want to prejudge," he added.

Niedzielski said that any decisions could be announced later this week - on Wednesday or Friday.

Poland, a country of around 38 million people, has reported more than 4.1 million cases of the coronavirus and around 97.6 thousand deaths.