one hospitalised in ostróda, linked to "patient zero" from cybinka (the two had travelled in the same bus); two patients in szczecin who had returned by car from italy; and one patient in wrocław who had returned from the united kingdom (uk). on 7 march, another sars-cov-2 case, of another person who had travelled in the bus together with "patient-zero", was announced by the minister of health as lab-confirmed. on 8 march 2020 the ministry of health reported two new cases of sars-cov-2 infection. one person was hospitalised in warsaw and another in racibórz (silesian voivodeship). both were in good condition. in the evening, the ministry confirmed another three positive test results, increasing the daily case count to five new cases. the patients were hospitalised in warsaw, wrocław and racibórz: one elderly person, one middle-aged and one young. the elderly person (hospitalised in wrocław) was in serious condition. on 9 march 2020 polish minister of health łukasz szumowski announced the confirmation of five new cases. three cases were confirmed in racibórz, one in kraków, one in wrocław and one in poznań, bringing the total number of confirmed sars-cov-2 cases in poland to 17. local transmission, 10 – 27 march 2020 on 10 march 2020 the mode of sars-cov-2 transmission in poland was officially declared by the world health organization as having shifted from imported cases only to local transmission. and the same day, armed forces general commander gen. jarosław mika was diagnosed and the eighteenth confirmed sars-cov-2 infection was announced in the masovian voivodeship. the two sars-cov-2 patients earlier announced in warsaw were both seriously ill with covid-19. on 16 march 2020 the number of confirmed cases increased to 177 and the death toll to 4. one of those infected was minister of the environment michał woś. on 17 march 2020 "patient zero", at zielona góra hospital, tested negative for sars-cov-2 the second time, and was considered to have recovered. on 20 march 2020, the ministry of health officially declared an epidemic. as of 29 march 2020, there were 269,307 people under quarantine for suspected sars-cov-2 infection and 42,783 sars-cov-2 tests had been made since the beginning of testing. nursing home and hospital clusters, march 2020 on 17 march 2020 a doctor at a hospital in grójec, "z.", had a dry cough and fever and had a sample taken for sars-cov-2 testing. while several members of staff did not want to work with him, the head of their group disagreed but decided after a long debate to isolate z. the hospital continued to function for the rest of the day without disinfection of the places where z. had been present. on 18 march z. was confirmed to be sars-cov-2 positive, and the hospital took samples from close contacts of z. from the previous five days. some of the nurses were ordered back to work at the hospital while waiting for their test results. as of 24 march 11 of the 59 patients of the hospital and seven medical personnel were found to be sars-cov-2 positive. onet.pl and gazeta wyborcza described the situation as contagion by carelessness. one of the grójec hospital personnel also worked at a niedabyl nursing home. on 28 march 2020 52 of the 66 residents and eight employees were found to be sars-cov-2 positive. on 1 april 2020, 38 hospitals and hospital sections around poland, including twelve in the masovian voivodeship that includes the polish capital of warsaw, were temporarily closed due to the risk of sars-cov-2 contamination from a confirmed or likely sars-cov-2 infected patient. second wave, october 2020 on 5 october 2020, przemysław czarnek tested positive for sars-cov-2. on 14 october sebastian kaleta tested positive for sars-cov-2. on 24 october, it was announced that polish president andrzej duda had tested positive for covid-19 after attending an event in tallinn where he met bulgarian president rumen radev who had gone into self-isolation after the event. on 2 december 2020, poland reached 1 million cases. epidemic controls hand sanitiser distributor in an almost empty shopping centre in tomaszów mazowiecki, 3 march 2020 lockdown type measures on 10–12 march 2020 lockdown-type control measures were implemented, closing schools and university classes, offices, and cancelling mass events, defined as those allowing 1000 or more participants in the case of stadiums or other events outside of buildings, and those allowing 500 or more participants in the case of events in buildings. on 12 march 2020, cultural institutions, such as philharmonic orchestras, operas, theatres, museums, and cinemas, had their activities suspended. and all schools in poland were closed with a reopening initially scheduled for 25 march 2020. the closure was extended to 10 april, with schools being required to carry out online classes with their students. as of 20 march 2020 the dates of final exams for eighth (final) year of primary school and matura, the exam during the final year of secondary school (liceum or technikum), remained unchanged. universities cancelled classes for the same period, while typically keeping research and administrative staff at work and allowing exceptions for research purposes. on 20 march 2020, the prime minister, mateusz morawiecki declared an official epidemic in poland. on 24 march 2020 poland's government announced further restrictions on people leaving their homes and on public gatherings. the new limits constrained gatherings by default to a maximum of two people (with an exception for families); an exception for religious gatherings, such as mass in the catholic church, funerals and marriages in which five participants and the person conducting the ceremony were allowed to gather; and an exception for work places. non-essential travel was prohibited, with the exception of travelling to work or home, sars-cov-2 control related activities, or "necessary everyday activities". everyday activities qualifying as "necessary" included shopping, buying medicines, visiting doctors, walking dogs, jogging, cycling and walking, provided that no more than two people participate and contact with others was avoided. the restrictions were initially defined for the period from 25 march to 11 april inclusive. as of 12 march 2020, the national bank of poland, to which commercial banks in poland send their bank notes to, carried out a two-week quarantine procedure and heating at 150 °c (302 °f) for all bank notes, prior to returning the notes for circulation. on 31 march 2020 the prime minister announced that poland would strengthen the restrictions. lawyers contacted by oko.press expected the restrictions to be issued as a regulation (secondary legislation) (polish: rozporządzenie), which they considered would be an unconstitutional method of introducing the rules. the regulation was published in dziennik ustaw on 31 march 2020. according to the regulation, minors were prohibited from leaving their homes unaccompanied by a legal guardian. parks, boulevards and beaches were closed, as well as all hairdressers, beauty parlours and tattoo and piercing salons. hotels were allowed to operate only if they had residents in quarantine, in another form of isolation, on an obligatory work delegation for services such as building construction or medical purposes. individuals walking in public were obliged to be separated by at least two metres, with the exception of guardians of children under 13 and disabled persons. no restrictions were applied to people travelling in private cars. the 31 march regulation allowed religious (article 9.3a) and other (article 15.1, 15.2) gatherings of only five people plus religious personnel or funeral employees from 1 to 11 april 2020. gatherings for up to 50 people, inclusive of religious personnel, were allowed from 12 april 2020 until further notice. an updated regulation on 10 april retained the authorisation of religious/funeral gatherings of up to 50 people but shifted the start date to 20 april (article 9.2) while other gatherings remained banned (article 14) 1 person per 10 m2. on 9 april 2020 mateusz morawiecki announced that the closure of cultural institutions and limits implemented in shops would continue until 19 april 2020, the closure of educational institutions and international transport would continue until 26 april 2020 the borders would remain "closed" until 3 may 2020 and people entering poland would still be required to be quarantined for 14 days. a government website differed from the 31 march regulation, stating that religious gatherings were to be limited to at most five people until 19 april 2020. police stated that the 10 april 2020 gathering of the de facto leader of poland jarosław kaczyński and nine other people, standing close together, commemorating the smolensk air disaster by laying a wreath, did not constitute a gathering in the sense of big gatherings forbidden in relation to the covid-19 pandemic. former prime minister of poland leszek miller described the gathering as showing contempt for ordinary people respecting the covid-19 restrictions. face covering polish authorities did not participate in the 28 february 2020 european union tender procedure for purchasing covid-19 pandemic related medical equipment like gloves, goggles, face shields, surgical masks, and protective clothing, in which 20 other member states participated. poland instead applied on march 6, 2020, for the 17 march tender. the european commission stated that all requests in the tender were satisfied by offers. on 9 april 2020 mateusz morawiecki announced a new control measure, in that from 16 april 2020 it was obligatory to cover one's nose and mouth in public places. after being asked where people could obtain masks from, szumowski clarified that any form of face covering, such as scarves, would be acceptable. from mid-2021 onward, media reported on more and more poles ignoring the obligation to wear a mask. sars-cov-2 tests as of 20 march 2020, the number of sars-cov-2 tests per capita in poland was lower than that of 22 other members of the european union, the efta and the european economic area, and above that of croatia and hungary. using data from 20 march 2020 the number of tests per positive detection was 30.8 tests per positive detection in poland, higher than for any of the other european countries listed, including germany (28.7) and norway (28.1), and lower than in south korea at 36.6 and russia at 721 tests per positive detection. in march 2020, the minister of health łukasz szumowski claimed that european solidarity in the provision of medical equipment to poland had failed. oko.press qualified the claim as "false" and accused the minister of deliberately misleading public opinion. oko.press referred to the european union tender process for masks and other protective equipment as a "success" that poland applied for very late, and commented as context that the eu does not have the legal powers to impose health management policy, such as quarantine measures or closing schools, on member states. the eu tender process was announced on 28 february 2020, to which 20 member states, without poland, responded. poland joined the mechanism on 6 march, qualifying for a procedure opened on 17 march for the purchase of gloves, goggles, face protectors, surgical masks and clothing. the european commission claimed that all the purchases were satisfied by offers, and should arrive within two weeks. commissioner thierry breton described the procedure as illustrating the power of eu coordination. on 19 march 2020 the eu had announced the creation of the resceu strategic stockpile of medical equipment, to be financed at the level of 90% by the commission, to deal with the covid-19 pandemic. vaccination percentage of covid-19 fully vaccinated population by gmina (municipality), showing large disparities between vaccination progress in urban and rural areas. in july, 2021 poland launched a lottery for those willing to receive the coronavirus vaccine. every day starting on july 1, every 500th person to receive was to get a cash prize of pln200 (€40) while every 2,000th person was to win pln500 and every week for three months until the end of september, the government promised to give away five prizes of pln50,000 and 720 electric scooters. these incentives were designed to encourage the population to get vaccinated since, at the time of the lottery's launch, only 35% of poland's population had been fully vaccinated against coronavirus. in november 2021, officers from the central police investigation bureau detained 11 people who were supposed to help organise false certificates confirming vaccination against covid-19. as of january 18, 2022, poland's vaccination rate was only 56%, below the eu average of 69%. in 2020, one third of poles aged 18–65 had stated in a study that they would never want to