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WARSAW, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Polish government announced Friday that it will ease additional COVID-19 induced lockdown restrictions, starting Feb. 12.
However, despite stabilized infection numbers and vaccination efforts, a full departure from the lockdown, which has been in place since Dec. 28, is not on the cards.
Hotels and other leisure facilities will be allowed to receive guests again, as long as they are not consuming food and drinks in common areas.
Cinemas will also be allowed to reopen, but only at 50 percent of their normal capacity. All restrictions on outdoor sports, including skiing, will be lifted.
Meanwhile, secondary schools and above will have to organize their classes exclusively online until at least March 1.
"We are seeing what is happening across our borders and in the European Union," Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a press conference on Friday. "A return to full normality would be premature."
More than 1.5 million Poles have been confirmed positive since the start of the pandemic, and the country's coronavirus-related deaths have risen to over 38,000.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in Poland and some other European countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
So far, over 1.5 million Poles have been vaccinated, mostly medical personnel and senior citizens.
Meanwhile, 238 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 63 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Tuesday. Enditem