In 2020, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a significant part of Poles reduced the frequency of visits and meetings. Most Poles have declared less frequent visits to shopping malls - 47 percent, less regular meetings with friends, and trips to restaurants - 46 percent. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

One-third of the respondents indicated the need to visit a hairdresser and a beautician immediately after the lifting of restrictions due to the COVID-19 epidemic in Poland. Only four percent of Poles said that even after the lockdown, they would still isolate themselves for fear of being infected with the virus.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

In 2020, Poles faced several lockdowns caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. For the majority of respondents, this situation did not affect their relationship. However, five percent of Poles admitted that they thought about divorce for the first time during the lockdown.

Nearly one in two Poles believed that hotels and restaurants' restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic should be lifted first. One in five stated that shopping malls and cultural and sports centers should be opened first in 2021.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

First-order dynamic capabilities in turbulent times.

In 2020, during the first lockdown caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak in Poland, a more significant percentage of people than today worked entirely from home.

pone.0252423.t006 - Dynamic capabilities, value creation and value capture: Evidence from SMEs under Covid-19 lockdown in Poland

Measurement properties.

On May 18, 2020, the government in Poland lifted the restriction on the closure of foodservices, beauty, and hairdressing zones in shopping centers. This decision's effect was a visible change in the number of visits to shopping malls compared to the period before the closure of food and service outlets.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

The data collection consists of 40 qualitative interviews with Polish migrant essential workers living in the UK and 10 in-depth expert interviews with key stakeholders providing information and support to migrant workers in the UK. All migrant interviews are in Polish. Six of the expert interviews with key stakeholders are in English and four are in Polish. Fieldwork was conducted fully online during the Covid-19 pandemic between March and August 2021, following the third UK-wide Covid-19 lockdown. Restrictions were still in place in some localities. Interviews took place shortly after the end of the transition period concluding the UK’s European Union exit on 1 January 2021. All Polish migrant worker interviewees entered the UK before 1 January 2021 and had the option to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.

The objectives of the qualitative fieldwork were to: 1. To synthesise empirical and theoretical knowledge on the short- and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on migrant essential workers. 2. To establish how the pandemic affected Polish migrant essential worker's lives; and expert interviews with stakeholders in the public and third/voluntary sector to investigate how to best support and retain migrant essential workers in COVID-19 recovery strategies. The project also involved: - co-producing policy outputs with partner organisations in England and Scotland; and - an online survey to measure how Polish migrant essential workers across different roles and sectors were impacted by COVID-19 in regard to health, social, economic and cultural aspects, and intentions to stay in the UK/return to Poland (deposited separately to University of Sheffield). Key findings included significant new knowledge about the health, social, economic and cultural impacts of Covid-19 on migrant essential workers. Polish essential workers were severely impacted by the pandemic with major mental health impacts. Mental health support was insufficient throughout the UK. Those seeking support typically turned to private (online) services from Poland as they felt they could not access them in the UK because of language or cultural barriers, lack of understanding of the healthcare system and pathways to mental health support, support being offered during working hours only, or fear of the negative impact of using mental health services on work opportunities. Some participants were in extreme financial hardship, especially those with pre-settled status or those who arrived in the UK during the pandemic. The reasons for financial strain varied but there were strong patterns linked to increased pressure at work, greater exposure to Covid-19 as well as redundancies, pay cuts and rejected benefit applications. There was a tendency to avoid applying for state financial support. These impacts were compounded by the sense of isolation, helplessness, or long-distance grief due to inability to visit loved ones in Poland. Covid-19 impacted most detrimentally on women with caring responsibilities, single parents and people in the health and teaching sectors. The most vulnerable Polish migrant essential workers - e.g. those on lower income, with pre-existing health conditions, restricted access to support and limited English proficiency - were at most risk. Discrimination was reported, including not feeling treated equally in the workplace. The sense of discrimination two-fold: as essential workers (low-paid, low-status, unsafe jobs) and as Eastern Europeans (frequent disciplining practices, treated as threat, assumed to be less qualified). In terms of future plans, some essential workers intended to leave the UK or were unsure about their future place of residence. Brexit was a major reason for uncertain settlement plans. Vaccine hesitancy was identified, based on doubts about vaccination, especially amongst younger respondents who perceived low risks of Covid-19 for their own health, including women of childbearing age, who may have worries over unknown vaccine side-effects for fertility. Interview participants largely turned to Polish language sources for vaccination information, especially social media, and family and friends in Poland. This promoted the spread of misinformation as Poland has a strong anti-vaccination movement.

COVID-19 has exposed the UK's socio-economic dependence on a chronically insecure migrant essential workforce. While risking their lives to offset the devastating effects of the pandemic, migrant workers reportedly find themselves in precarious professional and personal circumstances (temporary zero-hours contracts, work exploitation, overcrowded accommodation, limited access to adequate health/social services including Universal Credit). This project will investigate the health, social, economic and cultural impacts of COVID-19 on the migrant essential workforce and how these might impact on their continued stay in the UK. It will focus on the largest non-British nationality in the UK, the Polish...

The structure of the sample.

Several urban landscape planning solutions have been introduced around the world to find a balance between developing urban spaces, maintaining and restoring biodiversity, and enhancing quality of human life. Our global mini-review, combined with analysis of big data collected from Google Trends at global scale, reveals the importance of enjoying day-to-day contact with nature and engaging in such activities as nature observation and identification and gardening for the mental well-being of humans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Home-based activities, such as watching birds from one’s window, identifying species of plants and animals, backyard gardening, and collecting information about nature for citizen science projects, were popular during the first lockdown in spring 2020, when people could not easily venture out of their homes. In our mini-review, we found 37 articles from 28 countries with a total sample of 114,466 people. These papers suggest that home-based engagement with nature was an entertaining and pleasant distraction that helped preserve mental well-being during a challenging time. According to Google Trends, interest in such activities increased during lockdown compared to the previous five years. Millions of people worldwide are chronically or temporarily confined to their homes and neighborhoods because of illness, childcare chores, or elderly care responsibility, which makes it difficult for them to travel far to visit such places as national parks, created through land sparing, where people go to enjoy nature and relieve stress. This article posits that for such people, living in an urban landscape designed to facilitate effortless contact with small natural areas is a more effective way to receive the mental health benefits of contact with nature than visiting a sprawling nature park on rare occasions. Methods 1. Identifying the most common types of activities related to nature observation, gardening, and taxa identification during the first lockdown based on scientific articles and non-scientific press For scientific articles, in March 2023 we searched Scopus and Google Scholar. For countries where Google is restricted, such as China, similar results will be available from other scientific browsers, with the highest number of results from our database being available from Scopus. We used the Google Search browser to search for globally published non-scientific press articles. Some selection criteria were applied during article review. Specifically, we excluded articles that were not about the first lockdown; did not study activities at a local scale (from balcony, window, backyard) but rather in areas far away from home (e.g., visiting forests); studied the mental health effect of observing indoor potted plants and pet animals; or transiently mentioned the topic or keyword without going into any scientific detail. We included all papers that met our criteria, that is, studies that analyzed our chosen topic with experiments or planned observations. We included all research papers, but not letters that made claims without any data. Google Scholar automatically screened the title, abstract, keywords, and the whole text of each article for the keywords we entered. All articles that met our criteria were read and double-checked for keywords and content related to the keywords (e.g., synonyms or if they presented content about the relevant topic without using the specific keywords). We identified, from both types of articles, the major nature-based activities that people engaged in during the first lockdown in the spring of 2020. Keywords used in this study were grouped into six main topics: (1) COVID-19 pandemic; (2) nature-oriented activity focused on nature observation, identification of different taxa, or gardening; (3) mental well-being; (4) activities performed from a balcony, window, or in gardens; (5) entertainment; and (6) citizen science (see Table 1 for all keywords). 2. Increase in global trends in interest in nature observation, gardening, and taxa identification during the first lockdown We used the categorical cluster method, which was combined with big data from Google Trends (downloaded on 1 September 2020) and anomaly detection to identify trend anomalies globally in peoples’ interests. We used this combination of methods to examine whether interest in nature-based activities that were mentioned in scientific and nonscientific press articles increased during the first lockdown. Keywords linked with the main types of nature-oriented activities, as identified from press and scientific articles, and used according to the categorical clustering method were classified into the following six main categories: (1) global interest in bird-watching and bird identification combined with citizen science; (2) global interest in plant identification and gardening combined with citizen science; (3) global interest in butterfly watching, (4) local interest in early-spring (lockdown time), summer, or autumn flowering species that usually can be found in Central European (country: Poland) backyards; (5) global interest in traveling and social activities; and (6) global interest in nature areas and activities typically enjoyed during holidays and thus requiring traveling to land-spared nature reserves. The six categories were divided into 15 subcategories so that we could attach relevant words or phrases belonging to the same cluster and typically related to the activity (according to Google Trends and Google browser’s automatic suggestions; e.g., people who searched for “bird-watching” typically also searched for “binoculars,” “bird feeder,” “bird nest,” and “birdhouse”). The subcategories and keywords used for data collection about trends in society’s interest in the studied topic from Google Trends are as follows.

Bird-watching: “binoculars,” “bird feeder,” “bird nest,” “birdhouse,” “bird-watching”; Bird identification: “bird app,” “bird identification,” “bird identification app,” “bird identifier,” “bird song app”; Bird-watching combined with citizen science: “bird guide,” “bird identification,” “eBird,” “feeding birds,” “iNaturalist”; Citizen science and bird-watching apps: “BirdNET,” “BirdSong ID,” “eBird,” “iNaturalist,” “Merlin Bird ID”; Gardening: “gardening,” “planting,” “seedling,” “seeds,” “soil”; Shopping for gardening: “garden shop,” “plant buy,” “plant ebay,” “plant sell,” “plant shop”; Plant identification apps: “FlowerChecker,” “LeafSnap,” “NatureGate,” “Plantifier,” “PlantSnap”; Citizen science and plant identification: “iNaturalist,” “plant app,” “plant check,” “plant identification app,” “plant identifier”; Flowers that were flowering in gardens during lockdown in Poland: “fiołek” (viola), “koniczyna” (shamrock), “mlecz” (dandelion), “pierwiosnek” (primose), “stokrotka” (daisy). They are typical early-spring flowers growing in the gardens in Central Europe. We had to be more specific in this search because there are no plant species blooming across the world at the same time. These plant species have well-known biology; thus, we could easily interpret these results; Flowers that were not flowering during lockdown in Poland: “chaber” (cornflower), “mak” (poppy), “nawłoć” (goldenrod), “róża” (rose), “rumianek” (chamomile). They are typical mid-summer flowering plants often planted in gardens; Interest in traveling long distances and in social activities that involve many people: “airport,” “bus,” “café,” “driving,” “pub”; Single or mass commuting, and traveling: “bike,” “boat,” “car,” “flight,” “train”; Interest in distant places and activities for visiting natural areas: “forest,” “nature park,” “safari,” “trekking,” “trip”; Places and activities for holidays (typically located far away): “coral reef,” “rainforest,” “safari,” “savanna,” “snorkeling”; Butterfly watching: “butterfly watching,” “butterfly identification,” “butterfly app,” “butterfly net,” “butterfly guide”;

In Google Trends, we set the following filters: global search, dates: July 2016–July 2020; language: English.

In 2020, more than three times more women than men in Poland quit their jobs to care for their homes and children during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, when working remotely, 13 percent of women chose to work from home because of the need to care for a child compared to five percent of men.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

In 2024, the most recognizable online food store in Poland that year was Allegro. Every fourth respondent indicated this brand in a spontaneous awareness survey on e-commerce food players. Grocery retail market in Poland The food market in Poland has been developing steadily at the level of four percent annually since 2017. In 2020 alone, the food market grew by only 1.8 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is expected that in 2022 the value of the grocery market will amount to 368 billion zloty. The development of the food market has been positively influenced by social programs introduced by the government for Polish families and pensioners. On the other hand, the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in March 2020 and the related economy lockdown had a negative impact on the market. The online sales sector is one of the few industries that benefited from the pandemic crisis. The food industry, which until now has not enjoyed great interest among online shoppers, mainly due to the price difference with retail stores, has flourished during the epidemic. Digital payments in Poland Modern payment methods are becoming increasingly popular. The number of digital payment users in Poland is expected to reach almost 40 millions by 2028. The coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic will undoubtedly contribute to the growth of users and supporters of online payments, mainly due to the security related to this type of transaction. Digital payments are no longer associated solely with online purchases. Although cash is still the most commonly used form of payment in retail shops, more than half of consumers consider contactless payments to be the most user-friendly and convenient. Nevertheless, electronic payments are the most widely used method in the e-commerce sector, and the most frequently offered payment option is pay-by-link, card payment, or BLIK.

The period of isolation and the aftermath of the lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 changed the social activities taken by Poles. Forty-seven percent of respondents declared that they have given up on going to the cinema or theatre. On the other hand, out of those who still visit cinemas and theatres, 35 percent admitted to doing it less frequently than before the pandemic.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

BackgroundIn this study, we analyze the association of social isolation in the first phase of the pandemic with perceived stress among residents of Poland and Italy with a look at how these populations adjust to and comply with implemented regulations, guidelines, and restrictions.Materials and MethodsInternet survey with Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and questions regarding mobility patterns, attitude, and propensity to adjust toward the implemented measures and current health condition was made among Polish and Italian residents (Cronbach’s alpha 0.86 and 0.79, respectively). The sample size was 7,108 (6,169 completed questionnaires in Poland and 939 in Italy).ResultsThe Polish group had a higher stress level than the Italian group (mean PSS-10 total score 22,14 vs 17,01, respectively; p < 0.01). There was a greater prevalence of chronic diseases among Polish respondents. Italian subjects expressed more concern about their health, as well as about their future employment. Italian subjects did not comply with suggested restrictions as much as Polish subjects and were less eager to restrain from their usual activities (social, physical, and religious), which were more often perceived as “most needed matters” in Italian than in Polish residents.ConclusionHigher activity level was found to be correlated with lower perceived stress, but the causality is unclear. Difference in adherence to restrictions between Polish and Italian residents suggests that introducing similar lockdown policies worldwide may not be as beneficial as expected. However, due to the applied method of convenience sampling and uneven study groups, one should be careful with generalizing these results.

The Polish Prime Minister announced that as of May 4, 2020, shopping centers in Poland would be reopened after the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown. Their availability will be gradually resumed due to the introduced restrictions (person limits, the closing of restaurants in shopping malls). After the reopening of shopping centers, over 38 percent of Poles will visit clothing stores. The second type of shops that the respondents plan to visit in the first place will be interior and garden equipment stores.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

In 2020, as a result of the lockdown caused by the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic in Poland, the cinemas and gastronomy suffered the most. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

The period of isolation and the aftermath of the lockdown caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had an impact on Polish people's eating behavior. In 2021, just over 40 percent of respondents declared that their eating habits have changed.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

In 2020, both during and after the lockdown, most Polish respondents used banking and official matters electronically, bought clothes, and benefited from medical advice and consultations.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.