Corona in Poland: Despite the pandemic, large crowds in the ski area

A week ago, tourists in the Polish winter sports resort of Zakopane came under fire for failing to adhere to the measures taken in the fight against the novel corona virus.  The re had been reports of excessive partying. Now there was another rush to the popular ski area in Poland. Despite the pandemic, many people were on the ski slopes around Zakopane again at the weekend.

“All of Poland is coming here to Zakopane, and unfortunately we have to experience that a large group of visitors does not adhere to the Corona measures,” said a police spokesman on Saturday according to the PAP news agency. More than a hundred fines have been imposed since Friday afternoon. 50 additional police officers arrived as reinforcements from Cracow, 85 kilometers away.

No masks, crowded celebrants

A week ago, Poland reopened hotels and ski resorts for a test phase of 14 days. As a result, there were sprawling parties in Zakopane last weekend. TV recordings showed tightly packed groups of revelers dancing and singing through the Krupowki shopping and entertainment street. Many did not wear a mask.

 The  police had to issue more than a hundred fines.

Unlike in neighboring Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the ski lifts are running again in Poland.

 The  hotels are allowed to open at half capacity.

 The  authorities in Poland recently recorded a slight increase in the number of infections. On Saturday, the Ministry of Health in Warsaw reported 8,510 confirmed new corona infections, 493 of them in the Woidwodschaft Lesser Poland, to which Zakopane belongs.

 The re have been more than 1.6 million detected infections and 42,077 deaths nationwide since the pandemic began. Poland has around 38 million inhabitants.

 The  German government had declared the neighboring country a risk area.