Poland Report

When COVID-19 infections began spreading first in China and then in Italy, the PiS government downplayed the threat of a pandemic. Once the pandemic hit Poland, however, the government responded very quickly. Already two days before the first confirmed case of a COVID-19 infection in Poland, parliament adopted a COVID-19 statute which expanded the government’s decree powers outside a state of emergency. On March 13, one day after the first confirmed COVID-19 related death, the minister of health announced a “state of epidemic threat” which was elevated to a “state of epidemic” just one week later.