WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland reported a record 18,820 new coronavirus infections and 236 deaths on Wednesday, the health ministry said, with the country facing hospitals overload while mass street protests against an abortion ruling continue.
The ministry said that as of Wednesday, COVID-19 patients occupied 13,931 hospital beds and were using 1,150 ventilators, compared with 13,291 and 1,078 respectively a day earlier.
Poland has seen widespread protests following a ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal last Thursday that amounts to a near-total ban on abortion in the predominantly Catholic nation.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko and Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Catherine Evans)
