be vaccinated against covid-19, more so in rural areas with a high representation of the ruling pis party. impact economy the pandemic and the isolation measures in response to it had a serious impact on the polish economy, especially commerce, tourism and the hospitality industries. in november 2020, the european jamboree 2020, an event for 30,000 scouts and guides in gdansk, due to take place in july 2020, and initially postponed to july 2021, was ultimately cancelled. anti-crisis shield on 1 april 2020, the government launched a plan of public assistance to businesses, called the "anti-crisis shield" (polish: tarcza antykryzysowa). the program consists primarily of the following five areas. financial safety of employees and protection of jobs government-paid social insurance contributions for three months, for companies employing up to nine people, self-employed individuals and freelancers. one-off benefits of circa 2,000 pln gross (80% of the monthly minimal wage) for self-employed and freelancers. around 2.2 million people are estimated to be eligible for these benefits. working permits for non-citizens are to be prolonged to 30 days after the official revoking of the state of epidemic (as of early april 2020, a formal state of emergency or state of natural disaster had not been declared), if they expire during the state of epidemic. finance of business business finance measures include: public co-financing of employees' salaries up to 40% of the average monthly wage, if working time has been reduced up to 20%, but no less than working time for a part-time position. the taxpayers affected by pandemic are entitled to deduct their losses incurred in 2020 from income obtained in 2019 providing that revenue has diminished by more than 50%. non-repayable loans up to 5,000 pln for companies employing up to 9 people, but there cannot be any lay-offs within the next 6 months. enabling legally the company credit-worthiness assessing on the basis of former year financial statement to extend the repayment terms of business overdrafts. postponing the deadlines of withholding taxes, submitting the fiscal declarations and implementation of mandatory employee pension plan (epp, pol. pracownicze plany kapitałowe, ppk) healthcare enabling the taxpayers to deduct their donations given for counteracting the pandemic from their income. enhancing financial market soundness reducing banks' capital buffers requirements by financial stability committee. public investment plan elongated deadlines of public projects and cancellation of deadlines penalties in public tenders. the public purchases for equipment needed in counteracting the pandemic no longer has to conform the public procurement law. solidarity with other countries polish authorities and citizens took several solidarity actions to support people in other countries affected by the pandemic and to help in repatriations. the polish government sent medical supplies to italy and san marino, including 20,000 litres of disinfectants to veneto and san marino, produced by the state-owned polfa tarchomin, and a load of medical supplies on 7 april 2020. the polish centre for international aid sent a team of 15 polish doctors and paramedics to a field hospital in brescia, lombardy. doctors from wim warszawa share their italian covid-19 experience with armenian, azeri and moldovan colleagues. polish farmers allocated some of their production to italian doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. the italian flag was shown as an illumination on many buildings in poland. polish authorities sent spain 20,000 litres of trisept complex disinfectant liquid. a medical mission from warsaw's military institute of medicine went to chicago on 23 april 2020 to help in covid-19 management. on 13 april 2020, the representation of solidarity fund pl in georgia provided spraying equipment, 500 visors and 800 reusable face masks to municipal authorities in rustavi and marneuli (lower kartli), gori (inner kartli) and to a clinic in nikozi, near the demarcation line with south ossetia. the polish ministry of foreign affairs allocated 1.2 million pln to projects aimed at supporting emergency services in georgia and ukraine. a convoy of the polish state fire service carrying humanitarian cargo for the national medical response center arrived in minsk in belarus on 24 april, for medical institutions in grodno oblast, including 50,000 litres of disinfectant, 30,000 litres of antiseptic, 100,000 surgical masks and chloroquine. the polish company wipasz donated 100,000 reusable protective masks to kazakhstan, laptops for kazakhstani schoolchildren. a team of polish eight doctors, nurses and paramedics from polish center of international aid participated in the world health organization support program, spending a ten-day mission training staff in kyrgyz hospitals. the polish community participated in grassroots solidarity actions around the world. volunteers of the polish catholic mission in freiburg, breisgau, organised help and emergency counselling, teachers from polish schools in the czech republic sewed masks and provided them to senior peoples' homes, the polish community in canada printed 3d protective materials and helped in shopping, the polish medical association from berdyansk in ukraine organised telephone consultations, the association of poles in spain nasz dom – nuetra casa provided legal and psychological support and sewed protective clothing for nursing homes. the polish airline lot used twitter to organise a "#lotdodomu" ("#aflighthome") return program of 2,000 people to their countries of origin, including 18 other member states of the european union (eu). the programme was completed on 5 april 2020. lot also organised 388 special charter flights over 22 days which brought 55,000 polish citizens and workers to poland. polish authorities offered ferry and dedicated train services, and 18 convoys of 800 vehicles, escorted by police, to help estonians, latvians and lithuanians to return to their countries. censorship of medical personnel on 18 march 2020, an experienced midwife in a lesser poland voivodeship hospital published a report on facebook on the conditions of medical personnel and the situation of the hospital in relation to the covid-19 pandemic. on 19 march, she was fired from the hospital by marek wierzba. he stated that medical staff should be responsible, reliable and should publish true information. he also stated that the dismissed midwife had been spreading panic. polish minister of health łukasz szumowski stated that she shouldn't have been fired. on 20 march, the secretary of state of the ministry of health, józefa szczurek-żelazko, sent a written statement ordering voivodeship medical consultants to not make statements about sars-cov-2, the epidemiological situation, the risks for medical staff or methods of protection from infection, unless they had first consulted with the ministry of health or główny inspektorat sanitarny. szczurek-żelazko motivated the order by the need to provide correct, unified information and to avoid unjustified unrest in the medical community. doctors opposed the self-censorship orders; a surgeons group, porozumienie chirurgów skalpel, described the order as blackmail and said that it risked catastrophe. the group stated that the covid-19 pandemic showed poland as "not at all prepared for crisis situations" with a "lack of equipment, basic personal protective gear and disinfectant materials and a lack of standards and procedures". on 25 march 2020, the polish ombudsman adam bodnar sent a letter to the minister of health, szumowski, stating that medical staff's freedom of speech and is guaranteed under articles 2 and 54 of the polish constitution and the right of the public to information is guaranteed under article 61 of the constitution. bodnar stated that firing or punishing doctors for informing the public during the pandemic could be a violation of the "obligatory standards". bodnar asked if szumowski was aware of the situation and requested a clarification of policy. statistics reverse timeline of major events of covid-19 pandemic in poland (6/6) 11 jan 2022 100,000 confirmed deaths 23 dec 3,500,000 confirmed recoveries 22 dec 4,000,000 confirmed cases 16 dec 90,000 confirmed deaths 3 dec 85,000 confirmed deaths 28 nov 3,500,000 confirmed cases 28 nov 3,000,000 confirmed recoveries 19 nov 80,000 confirmed deaths 29 oct 3,000,000 confirmed cases 28 sep 200 deaths per 100,000 population (2‰) 29 june 75,000 confirmed deaths 9 may 70,000 confirmed deaths reverse timeline of major events of covid-19 pandemic in poland (5/6) 1 may 2,500,000 confirmed recoveries 24 april 65,000 confirmed deaths 15 april 60,000 confirmed deaths 9 april 150 deaths per 100,000 population (1.5‰) 9 april 2,500,000 confirmed cases 5 april 2,000,000 confirmed recoveries 5 april 55,000 confirmed deaths 24 march 50,000 confirmed deaths 19 march 2,000,000 confirmed cases 9 march 1,500,000 confirmed recoveries 6 march 45,000 confirmed deaths 11 february 40,000 confirmed deaths 4 february 100 deaths per 100,000 population (1‰) 29 january 1,500,000 confirmed cases 23 january 35,000 confirmed deaths timeline of major events of covid-19 pandemic in poland (4/6) 3 november 400,000 confirmed cases 7 november 500,000 confirmed cases 7 november 200,000 confirmed recoveries 11 november 600,000 confirmed cases 14 november 10,000 confirmed deaths 15 november 700,000 confirmed cases 20 november 800,000 confirmed cases 24 november 900,000 confirmed cases 26 november 15,000 confirmed deaths 27 november 500,000 confirmed recoveries 2 december 1,000,000 confirmed cases 6 december 20,000 confirmed deaths 19 december 25,000 confirmed deaths 28 december 1,000,000 confirmed recoveries 6 january 2021 30,000 confirmed deaths timeline of major events of covid-19 pandemic in poland (3/6) 13 september 60,000 confirmed recoveries 22 september 80,000 confirmed cases 30 september 90,000 confirmed cases 1 october 70,000 confirmed recoveries 4 october 100,000 confirmed cases 11 october 80,000 confirmed recoveries 11 october 3,000 confirmed deaths 16 october 150,000 confirmed cases 17 october 90,000 confirmed recoveries 21 october 200,000 confirmed cases 22 october 100,000 confirmed recoveries 22 october 4,000 confirmed deaths 29 october 300,000 confirmed cases 29 october 5,000 confirmed deaths 3 november 6,000 confirmed deaths timeline of major events of covid-19 pandemic in poland (2/6) 25 april 500 confirmed deaths 8 may 5,000 confirmed recoveries 21 may 20,000 confirmed cases 25 may 1,000 confirmed deaths 26 may 10,000 confirmed recoveries 16 june 30,000 confirmed cases 28 june 20,000 confirmed recoveries 19 july 40,000 confirmed cases 19 july 30,000 confirmed recoveries 7 august 50,000 confirmed cases 19 august 40,000 confirmed recoveries 21 august 60,000 confirmed cases 27 august 2,000 confirmed deaths 5 september 70,000 confirmed cases 5 september 50,000 confirmed recoveries timeline of major events of covid-19 pandemic in poland (1/6) 4 march 2020 first confirmed case 12 march first confirmed death 12 march lockdown-type controls: schools and university are closed (extended several times) 14 march 100 confirmed cases 15 march sanitary cordon on all polish borders 17 march first confirmed recovery 20 march government officially declared a state of epidemic 21 march 500 confirmed cases 25 march 1,000 confirmed cases 4 april 100 confirmed recoveries 6 april 100 confirmed deaths 8 april 5,000 confirmed cases 14 april 500 confirmed recoveries 19 april 1,000 confirmed recoveries 22 april 10,000 confirmed cases total number of confirmed cases, recoveries and deaths confirmed new cases per day confirmed deaths per day covid-19 monitoring, february–april 2020 temporary german–polish border control at lubieszyn (western pomerania), 15 march 2020. animated map of confirmed sars-cov-2 cases in poland covid-19 monitoring in poland, february to april 2020. "suspected" means hospitalised for suspected sars-cov-2 infection. in the absence of updates, data from earlier dates are repeated without change. early values of lab-tested counts are shown as "1" in the absence of data. quarantine numbers from 17 march include people quarantined after entering poland following border closures. after the first laboratory confirmed sars-cov-2 case in poland on 4 march 2020, in lubusz voivodeship, bordering germany, cases were confirmed in seven other voivodeships throughout poland during 5–9 march 2020, covering eight of the sixteen voivodeships. on 17 march, all sixteen voivodeships had recorded sars-cov-2 positive cases, with the final two voivodeships being kujawsko-pomorskie and podlaskie. on 15 march, poland closed its land borders for 10 days, and international airports for 14 days for passenger traffic, only allowing polish residents, citizens and those with immediate polish family to enter poland. people entering poland were required to be quarantined for 14 days. the way in which borders were controlled was criticised as it caused traffic disruptions, forcing drivers to wait in long lines. on 16 march, at the small traffic border crossing in prudnik cars were waiting in a line of over three kilometres (2 miles). additional information covid-19 versus non-covid-19 death classification on 26 march 2020, the polish health authorities' classification of covid-19 deaths only included deaths of people with lab-confirmed sars-cov-2 infection, classified as u07.1 under the icd-10 international disease classification system. (u07.1). covid-19 deaths under u07.2, which had been defined by who one day earlier to mean deaths when "covid-19 is diagnosed clinically