Warsaw, Mar 11 (IANS): Poland's health authorities confirmed 17,260 new Covid-19 infections in 24 hours on Wednesday, the highest daily increase since the start of the year.

In total, over 1.8 million people in the country of 38 million have been infected with coronavirus since the start of the pandemic a year ago. Almost 46,000 lost their lives to Covid-19, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the country's hospitals have been filling up since the start of the third wave of the pandemic in February. On Wednesday, 1,902 of the 2,702 ventilators available for Covid-19 patients in the country were occupied.

"I think the worst is yet to come," Michal Sutkowski, President of the Warsaw Association of Family Practitioners said.

"Every day, 500 to 700 new patients are hospitalized. This is an enormous figure." The number of patients assigned to a ventilator also increases by 10 per cent each day, Sutkowski added.

To date, 4,086,863 people in Poland have received at least one vaccine dose. The country currently vaccinates medical professionals, the elderly and teachers. Registration of patients with chronic diseases commenced on Wednesday. Their vaccination is scheduled to start on March 15.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in an increasing number of countries with the already-authorised coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 263 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 81 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the US, according to information released by the World Health Organization on March 9.