Poland’s health minister Lukasz Szumowski announced his resignation on August 18, indicating he wanted to go back to working as a heart surgeon, IntelliNews reported.
Lukasz Szumowski, a Polish top health official, preferred to step-down. Szumowski’s deputy, Janusz Cieszynski, announced his resignation the previous day.
During the press conference, the head of the health ministry told he was about to resign in February, but coronacrisis has smashed his plans. Due to chaos caused by the novel virus, he postponed the decision for another half a year.
As the minister said, he felt he could now leave because Poland had built a system to fight the COVID-19 outbreak, and the pathogen originated in China had not caused the economy to crash.
Commenting on his decision to resign, Lukasz Szumowski had also been the subject of scrutiny after allegations that friends and family had benefited from government grants and contracts.
Poland copes well with the coronacrisis: health minister
Poland’s health authorities reported that a total of 57,876 people had tested positive for the coronavirus since March, and 1,896 have died from the COVID-19 respiratory disease so far.
With 48 COVID-19 deaths per million population, Poland remains far less affected by the coronavirus epidemic than many other countries in Europe.
During a press conference dedicated to minister’s resignation, Szumowski said that he had been in talks over leaving the role for months. He had a “gentleman’s agreement” with the PM Mateusz Morawiecki to complete “some important matters” such as the digitalization of parts of the Polish healthcare system.
