The highly anticipated Scientific Committee Meeting was held today. The decisions taken after the Scientific Committee Meeting were announced by President Erdoğan. The question of whether the mask ban was lifted became one of the most researched questions after the Scientific Committee Meeting. President Erdoğan made a last-minute statement about the mask ban. Well, is the mask ban over or does it continue? Has the obligation to wear masks in shopping malls, public transportation, closed areas and schools be lifted?
Saying, "Let's take off the masks, shall we?" Erdogan gave the floor to the Minister of Health, Koca. Minister Koca said:
“We fought a successful war against Covid-2020, which spread to our country in March 19. According to the decision announced at the beginning of March, obstacles in front of normal life were removed.
The obligation of mask in closed places, which has been applied in various scopes for 3 years, has been abolished. Mask application only in public transportation vehicles and health institutions will continue until the cases fall below 1000. It is recommended that elderly people and those with chronic diseases continue to use masks. It is recommended that those with chronic diseases and the elderly should not neglect the vaccinations, especially the reminder doses.
President Erdogan later said in a statement:
“I would like to express my gratitude to each and every one of you on behalf of my family and my nation for the services you have provided to our country and nation so far. Our world has spent the last 2 years under the shadow of this epidemic. This process has been affected in every field from production to consumption, from transportation to tourism, from sports to education.
Each of the countries engaged in the fight against the epidemic to the extent of their own capacity and capabilities. There were serious problems under every heading, from the hospital to the medical personnel, from the mask to the medicine, from the respirator to the bottom. We have all witnessed that huge states are fighting for masks at airports and border gates.
Most importantly, the management skills of states were tested in the meantime. Turkey has been one of the few countries that can come out of all these rankings with a clear conscience.
Our health infrastructure has put forward an exemplary son's struggle in the world, under the coordination of our health care workers, whom we have witnessed together, and our minister of health.
We see our hospitals, which we named after our teachers who lost their lives in the epidemic, such as Cemil Taşçıoğlu and Erdem Öz, as symbols of this struggle.
In the meantime, we opened more than 16 thousand new beds in city hospitals, state hospitals and emergency hospitals, while we were fighting the epidemic in the most effective way, we did not give any weakness to social needs.
We never gave up on letting go and we stood by our people with practices such as loyalty groups formed by volunteers.
Our fight against the epidemic has been in the light of science. We are one of the 9 countries that can produce their own vaccine.
To be frank, the world, especially developed countries, has shown an approach that cannot be forgotten in this regard. This selfishness of countries, which do not care about anything other than their own security and welfare, in the face of threats to the whole of humanity has been recorded in the pages of history.
As Turkey, the lesson we have learned from this process is that it is imperative that we become self-sufficient in health infrastructure and services, just like the others.
We will quickly reach this goal with our infrastructure and qualified human resources.
Of course, I would like to point out an issue that we personally witnessed the efforts and efforts of the Ministry of Health team and our scientific committee members throughout this process.
On behalf of my nation, I would like to express my gratitude to our esteemed scientists who have devoted almost all of their work to the fight against the epidemic for the last 2 years, without expecting any financial reward. We will not forget the services of our health army of 1 million 300 thousand people, especially our Minister and his team, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
The recommendation of the scientific committee is that the sick and risky groups are in contact and the elderly should continue to use masks.
Again, our scientific committee recommends that all our citizens, especially those with chronic diseases and the elderly, should not neglect the reminder doses of vaccines, which is our biggest trump card against the epidemic.
Our own vaccine, Türkovac, whose efficacy has been proven, is particularly recommended for reminder doses.
For this, family health centers and vaccination centers in public hospitals will continue their activities to meet the needs.
Free distribution of coronavirus drugs produced in our country to our citizens will continue.
Current technologies and treatments will be closely monitored.
MASK REQUIREMENT REMOVED
The obligation of mask in closed places, which has been applied in various scopes for 3 years, has been abolished. Mask application only in public transportation vehicles and health institutions will continue until the cases fall below 1000. It is recommended that elderly people and those with chronic diseases continue to use masks. It is recommended that those with chronic diseases and the elderly should not neglect the vaccinations, especially the reminder doses.
Be the first to comment