WARSAW: Poland's prime minister got a booster shot against the coronavirus and made an emotional appeal to citizens to get vaccinated as 570 new deaths in one day were reported from COVID-19.
Mateusz Morawiecki's appeal on Wednesday was made to a nation with a vaccination rate of just 54%.
The numbers those fully vaccinated have risen very slowly in recent weeks, though fears of the new omicron variant have appeared to spur some to finally get vaccinated.
Poland also reported over 29,000 new infections, the highest infection rate since a virus wave in the spring made central Europe a global hot spot.
Morawiecki said Christmas could be much more peaceful if millions more in the nation of 38 million get shots soon.
He stressed that Christmas is a time when children meet their grandparents, and that many such gatherings in the past have "unfortunately...ended tragically."
He also spoke in favour of a proposal to allow employers to check whether their employees are vaccinated -- an idea meeting with resistance.