Hopes have been raised that perhaps with the advent of higher temperatures and sunny aura the COVID-19 epidemic would abate, but Health Minister Łukasz Szumowski has put the Poles’ hopeful longings on hold.

“We may forget the summer holidays that we’ve been dreaming of and that we used to know,” Mr Szumowski told RMF Radio on Tuesday morning, adding that “there is no data suggesting that the epidemic would subside because of the summer season.”



“Elsewhere in the world where the temperatures are much higher and sunlight abounds, the virus is still present,” said the minister, adding that “I do not expect that June and July would eliminate [the virus] all of a sudden. Unfortunately, we will be wrestling with it for a year or even longer.”



Asked whether summer camps and holidays could be organised, the minister replied tersely: “we can assume that there won’t be any summer camps.”



Mr Szumowski stressed that Poland had the capacity to carry out 20,000 coronavirus tests per 24 hours. As many as 5,5000 tests were carried out on Monday, 11,000 on Friday. The minister added that “no country in the world has been conducting [COVID-19] tests preventively.”