WARSAW – Poland reported 30,586 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, the highest number since the spring of last year.

Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said during a press conference that nearly 20 percent of new cases are of the Omicron variant, and the spread of it has “officially become a fact.”

“The situation is dramatic,” he said, adding that the expected daily number would exceed 50,000 next week.

“We have decided to introduce compulsory working from home for all civil servants,” he said, asking businesses to follow suit and let their employees work from home whenever possible.

Read more: Poland records 100,000 Covid-linked deaths

The Polish Health Ministry has also reported 375 more deaths over the last 24 hours.

With a vaccination rate of around 56 percent, Poland is lagging behind other European Union countries.

Since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, Poland has registered about 4.3 million cases of COVID-19 infection. A total of 103,062 people in the country have died as a result of the pandemic.