Poland hits pandemic record of over 36,600 daily infections

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s deputy health minister says the nation has hit a COVID-19 pandemic record of 36,665 new infections reported in 24 hours. Waldemar Kraska said 1,390 among the new cases were confirmed to be the highly contagious omicron variant. Health care authorities are expecting up to 50,000 new daily infections next week, saying the fifth wave will be a tough challenge to the system. There were 248 deaths among coronavirus patients, a drop from almost 800 deaths in a day in late December. The vaccination rate is almost 57% in this nation of some 38 million.