WARSAW • Poland is opening a field hospital at Warsaw's landmark national stadium and will bring in the army to handle drive-through Covid-19 testing facilities amid a surge in new infections that threatens to overwhelm the healthcare system.

Officials said the government was in talks with private medical facilities to provide beds and wards for coronavirus patients, and planned to double the base salaries of state health workers.

Other major cities are also rushing to set up new temporary hospitals, the Health Ministry said, after new daily cases nearly hit 10,000 last week. Yesterday, 7,482 cases were reported, after a weekend downtick in testing.

"I fear that looking at the development of the situation, we will have this infrastructure (of new temporary hospitals) set up for weeks, if not months, in several places in Poland," government spokesman Piotr Muller said yesterday.

Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said new daily infections could soon surge to 20,000 if social distancing and other rules were not widely complied with.

The government has already urged citizens to stay home, and ordered gyms and pools to close, restaurants to cut hours, and schools to shift to remote classes.

But Mr Niedzielski said the government had not decided to introduce any additional restrictions on people visiting family and friends' graves on Nov 1, when millions of Poles remember their loved ones on All Saints' Day.

The government was initially successful in containing the first wave of the pandemic in the spring, but has faced criticism for failing to prepare the country for the second wave.

REUTERS