Antibacterial sanitizers are displayed inside a vending machine selling face masks, gloves and sanitizers in Warsaw, Poland, on April 11, 2020. People in Poland will be obliged to cover their nose and mouth in public, starting on April 16, in order to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus. Fresh figures from the Ministry of Health showed a total of 6,088 confirmed infections and 195 fatalities as of Saturday morning. (Xinhua/Zhou Nan)

WARSAW, April 9 -- People in Poland will be obliged to cover their nose and mouth in public, starting on April 16, in order to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus, Polish Minister of Health Lukasz Szumowski said on Thursday.

"When there are more and more sick people in Poland, some of them asymptomatic, it would help protect not those who wear these masks but others. Therefore, from next Thursday, such obligation will be introduced for everyone in public space," he said at a press conference.

The minister explained that such an obligation exists in several other countries around the world. "We are not saying that it must be a mask, it can be a handkerchief or a scarf," he said, adding that specific regulations will be announced after the Easter holidays.

Szumowski appealed to the Poles not to visit their loved ones during the upcoming holidays. "Let's call people who are lonely, let's talk, but do not visit each other."

He said that if it had not been for the restrictions imposed, up to 40,000 people in the country could have been infected.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Poland has reached 5,341, with 164 deaths, the Health Ministry said Thursday morning.