The Government has shut down all education institutions and cultural attractions for two weeks in an attempt to stymie the spread of coronavirus. So far Poland has 61 cases and only one fatality, and rates of infection have been far lower in Poland than most of the rest of Europe.

Are there still flights?

Due to reduced passenger uptake, LOT Polish Airlines flights to London City Airport have been suspended until 24 April, but are continuing to other UK airports.

The Government has also issued sanitary controls at all borders.

Passengers arriving in the country should expect to have their temperature taken and fill out forms saying where they have come from and where they will be staying in Poland.

Poland is not on the Foreign Office list of restricted travel. You do not need to self isolate if you have recently travelled back to the UK from Poland.

READ MORE

• UK coronavirus tracker: How many cases of coronavirus in UK right now?

Is it safe to travel to Poland?

At this point Poland is not considered a major risk like Italy or France.

If you are planning to travel to Poland, keep up to date with Foreign Office advice as the situation progresses.

Countries across Europe are ramping up restrictions on travel and public life in the wake of COVID-19.

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said: “We are in a very difficult situation, but we see on the example of Italy that this position may be much more difficult.”

The UK’s Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance explained in a press conference this week that the UK would not be banning any international travel, like the USA has.

He said: “Quite early on we looked at the question of stopping flights and the assessment was that if we stop flights directly from China at the beginning, unless you’ve got something like a 95 percent effect or unless you could stop all other routes from china to the UK by 95 percent, the effect on the delay to the epidemic was minimal.

“It was a day or two. And more realistically we could get, at best, probably a 50 percent reduction.”

He continued: “This really wasn’t going to make a big difference and I think the evidence has borne that out actually, that you can’t, in the way the world works, you can not stop that unless everybody decided to do it all at once.

“And it’s certainly too late now to be trying to do that.”

Source: Read Full Article