Poland ex-president Walesa has COVID-19

Poland's former president and former Solidarity pro-democracy movement leader Lech Walesa says he has COVID-19.

The 78-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate said on Facebook on Friday that he was surprised to find out he is infected despite three vaccination doses.

"I can't believe it: I received 3 shots, .... (but) I'm infected. (I have a) headache, I can't warm up my body. I feel like my flesh is tearing away from the bones," Walesa wrote.

"After this painful lesson I will never separate from my mask," Walesa wrote.

Walesa was fitted with a pacemaker in 2008 and last year he had a heart surgery.

In the 1980s, Walesa led the nationwide Solidarity movement that eventually toppled Poland's communist leaders through an election in 1989.

He received the Nobel Prize in 1983.

Walesa served as democratic Poland's first popularly elected president in 1990-95.

He is a strong critic of Poland's current right-wing government.