Polish president tests positive for COVID-19

WARSAW - Polish President Andrzej Duda has tested positive for COVID-19, his spokesperson Blazej Spychalski said on social media on Saturday morning.

"The president is feeling fine," Spychalski tweeted. "We are in constant contact with the relevant medical services."

The test result was reported to the president on Friday evening. Most of his staff and Duda himself have been quarantined.

The Polish president was working until the test result came in. He visited the National Stadium in Warsaw on Friday afternoon to inspect the work on a field hospital, which has an initial capacity of 500 beds and can be expanded to 1,000 beds. The temporary hospital is slated to become operational over the weekend.

On Friday, Duda also awarded a state decoration to this year's French Open winner Iga Swiatek and her father. Swiatek has been put in quarantine as well.

During all his public appearances, Duda wore a mask, and he additionally wore nitryl gloves when meeting with Swiatek.

Similar to other countries, Poland is struggling to control the pandemic.

In total, 241,946 Poles have been confirmed positive since the start of the pandemic, with 4,351 deaths from the coronavirus.

One candidate medicine, developed from blood plasma of former patients, is now undergoing testing in the eastern Polish town of Lublin.

Many countries, including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, are racing to find a vaccine against COVID-19.

Starting on Saturday, additional restrictions have been put in place to control the epidemic, following a serious spike in infections that put the number of confirmed cases above 10,000 per day.