Polish President Andrzej Duda, 48, has announced he tested positive for the new coronavirus, a diagnosis that comes as the country experiences a huge surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Duda said on Saturday in a recording published on Twitter he was experiencing no COVID-19 symptoms “but unfortunately, the test result is absolutely unambiguous”.
“I would like to apologise to all those who are exposed to quarantine procedures because of meeting me in recent days,” he said. “If I had had any symptoms, please, believe me, all meetings would have been cancelled.”
Duda on Friday visited the National Stadium in the capital, Warsaw, which is being transformed into a field hospital to treat coronavirus patients.
On the same day, he also bestowed state honours on Iga Swiatek, the 19-year-old Polish tennis player who won the French Open this month, and her father and trainer, Tomasz Swiatek.
Duda and the Swiateks wore masks and gloves but stood very close and shook hands as the president fastened honorary pins on them.
Iga Swiatek said she and others on her team have no symptoms but would go into quarantine following Duda’s positive test. She said they are tested regularly and would be tested again in three days.
The president’s key constitutional roles include guiding foreign policy and signing legislation. But many of his duties are ceremonial, and most of the responsibility for running the country lies with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s government.
Poland on Saturday reported 13,628 new confirmed cases and a record daily number of COVID-19 related deaths – 179. The daily case count was the nation’s second-highest of the pandemic after a record number set on Friday.
Poland, a country of 38 million people, saw very low infection rates in the spring.
.webp)
