Anywhere you look, there are empty streets and parking lots as Poland is experiencing the new lockdown period. At least until 17 January of 2021, non-essential stores in large shopping centers will remain closed. Today, a regulation imposing an obligation on store owners to limit retail has come into force. In 3 days' time, restrictions will mainly affect the ones bidding farewell to 2020.

Deputy Prime Minister and leader of PiS (Law and Justice party) Jarosław Kaczyński plans to vaccinate against COVID-19 within the time limit for his age group, the head of the Office of the Prime Minister, Michał Dworczyk, informed on Monday.

The first person was vaccinated for Covid-19 in the hospital of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration in Warsaw. I am proud that I was chosen, Alicja Jakubowska said.

We start with an unexpected Christmas gift that Polish exporters received yesterday from the British government and the European Commission. A deal has been reached which means that there will be no Brexit without a post brexit trade agreement. It was an important issue for Poland as trade with the United Kingdom accounts for 6% of the country’s exports.

We are working on solving the problems of Polish truck drivers stuck in the British Dover. We are planning additional emergency solutions in a short time, announced Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk on Thursday. There is an ambassador on site in Dover, he said.

From midnight on December 22, it is forbidden to land in Poland from airports located, among others, in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The ban was introduced by the Polish authorities after a new variety of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was discovered in the UK.

73 percent Internet users have recently been shopping online - according to the Gemius Polska report. Buyers are younger people with higher education. There is a noticeable change in our parcel collection preferences - instead of ordering a courier delivery, we are more likely to use collection points. We talked about the e-commerce sector in today's "Biznes Polska" program, on Telewizja Republika.

Little tourist traffic is expected during the holiday season in mountain towns in Dolny Śląsk (Lower Silesia). Due to the decision to close the hotels from December 28, some of their owners have already decided to close their facilities.

Food and sweets will be included, among others, in 665 Christmas packages which will be given to the insurgents. We want to show them that we remember, that we care about them, that they are important to us, said the director of the Warsaw Rising Museum, Jan Ołdakowski.

Some ski resorts were open on Saturday morning in Podkarpacie, incl. the slope of Gromadzyń in Ustrzyki Dolne and in Puławy Górne near Rymanów. There are no conditions for skiing tourism in the Bieszczady Mountains. Hiking routes are slippery.

Polish striker Robert Lewandowski has been recognised as 2020’s top player at the FIFA Football Best Awards. He won more votes than fellow nominees and football legends Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

The coronavirus crossed the plans of not only tourists, but businesses which live off tourism. Closed hotels and ski resorts are only a small percentage of the national economy of Poland. Not only the country’s budget, but also the whole of the Polish society will suffer huge financial losses.

Polish Health Minister Adam Niedzielski has announced the introduction of a national quarantine will come into force on 28th December until 17th January next year. There will be more restrictions, including a curfew between 7pm and 6am on New Year’s Eve.

“Poland needs strong development impulses. The basic one is investments, but undoubtedly, export is also the driving force behind development - not only in terms of shipping our goods and services into the world. Foreign expansion of Polish companies is necessary which, apart from trade, also means investments” states Paweł Majewski, the president of the board of the Polish Oil Mining and Gas Extraction.

On the 39th anniversary of the introduction of martial law, President Andrzej Duda lit the "Light of Freedom" on Piłsudski Square in Warsaw. "Martial law was a day of a terrible tragedy of interrupting the time of the first Solidarity, blowing away the dream of freedom for a long time, for almost 10 years until 1989," Andrzej Duda said.

Today, Poles commemorate the 39th anniversary of the introduction of Martial Law on December 13th 1981. More than 100 political dissidents were killed during martial law, which lasted to the summer of 1983 and more than 10.000 were interned by the communist regime.

Foresters from the Regional Management of State Forests in Piła (Greater Poland voivodeship) will donate over 700 Christmas trees to institutions fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Christmas trees will go, among others, to hospitals, sanitary and social welfare centers located in the RDSF Piła.

Two Polish grocery stores named “Biedronka” were targeted by bomb attacks in the Netherlands. The explosions took place this morning. One store was located in Aalsmeer, the other in Heeswijk-Dinther. Fortunately, no one died in the blasts. The owner of both stores, Mohamed Mahmoed, claims that his competition is behind these attacks.