The COVID-19 pandemic posed a global challenge, significantly affecting the citizens’ way of life in Poland and worldwide. The Polish authorities, fearing the spread of the infectious disease, made rapid and chaotic changes to curb the threat. The fear caused by the coronavirus in the early stages of the epidemic and the vast amount of legislation changes made it much more difficult to analyse what was changing at any given time and whether it was related to the pandemic. As part of measures aimed at combating COVID-19, many amendments were added to the Criminal, Criminal Procedural, or Misdemeanor Laws. The author seeks to determine whether the exemption of government officials from criminal liability for their actions related to combating COVID-19 was justified because of the already existing institution of the state of necessity as provided for in Article 26 of the Criminal Code.