Poland's government is transforming the National Stadium in Warsaw into a field hospital to handle the surging number of people infected with the coronavirus.
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Government spokesman Piotr Muller said on Monday that the stadium will have room for 500 patients and will be equipped with oxygen therapy for those who need it.
"We can see that the number of cases is growing so fast that we need to secure places for hospitalisation for those who need it," Muller said, speaking on TVP Info, the state TV's all-news channel.
Also on Monday, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the conservative ruling party and deputy prime minister, went into voluntary quarantine after having contact with an infected person.
He was showing no symptoms and working from home, the party spokesman said.
Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said he was also going into quarantine after contact with an infected person.
The stadium, with a seating capacity of more than 58,500, was constructed to host matches for the Euro 2012 football championship.
Poland experienced very low rates of infection in the northern spring compared with western European countries but is now witnessing an exponential surge of coronavirus infections.
On Monday the health ministry recorded 7482 new coronavirus infections over the previous day and 41 deaths.
Since the start of the pandemic the country of 38 million has recorded 183,248 cases and 3614 deaths.
In the past day, 36,000 COVID-19 tests were carried out, meaning that nearly 21 per cent of all tests came back positive.
Health Minister Adam Niedzielski warned on Monday that Poland could have 15,000 to 20,000 new cases daily if infection rates keep increasing at their current pace.
He said his ministry is preparing for that scenario.
Australian Associated Press