‘Turkey doesn’t think about a complete lockdown right now’

* Photo: Aytuğ Can Sencar / AA

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Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca addressed the public after the Coronavirus Science Board meeting yesterday (February 25).

In his statement ahead of the "gradual normalization" process amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Minister Koca announced that Turkey would start the "on-site decision" period as of March 1.

According to Minister Koca's statement, the Presidential Cabinet will be informed about the Health Ministry's works and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will announce the decisions taken about the pandemic to the public.

Speaking about the coronavirus variants seen in Turkey so far, Koca said that there is no new coronavirus variant that originated in Turkey. However, he raised concerns that the rate of infections related to the United Kingdom (UK) strain has been rising in the country.

"One Brazilian, 49 South African variants of the coronavirus have been recorded in Turkey so far," Koca said further, warning all citizens about the mutated virus as the infections are increasing day by day.

Over 8 million doses so far

Referring to the ongoing mass vaccination campaign with China's CoronaVac, Minister Koca said that Turkey is approaching the end of the first stage of the drive, with over 8 million people, including nearly 1.5 million having received the second dose, vaccinated so far.

"Turkey will have 105 million doses of coronavirus vaccine by the end of May at the latest," he said, adding that the country will initially receive 800,000 doses of the BioNTech vaccine out of 4.5 million in 10 days, and efforts will be put to raise it to 5 million doses in total.

There is no supply or planning problem in the vaccination process and the second doses for all who have received the first dose of the vaccine are guaranteed, Koca said, pointing out that Turkey is among the countries that have been fighting against the virus successfully.

To avoid a possible supply problem, it is necessary to domestically develop a COVID-19 vaccine, the health minister stressed.

On Turkey's works to develop a local COVID-19 vaccine, Minister Koca said that the phase two trials may end in April and the country may advance to phase three in late April. He also underlined that they aim to complete the vaccination campaign in April and May at the latest.

He dismisses the opposition's allegations

Minister Koca also spoke about the main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) allegations about China's CoronaVac vaccine.

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), Koca rejected the opposition party's claims that Turkey gets vaccines from China for free.

"In a world where there is a war for vaccines, would a manufacturer company donate vaccines to a country for free, is there a rational explanation for this?" he asked, adding, "I underline, under no circumstances has an additional amount of money been given to the intermediary firm."

Koca also shared the following statement by the Sinovac company in Turkish and English on his Twitter account:

4. Vatandaşa hizmet yolunu aramak yerine kafa karışıklığına sebep olmaya çalışılmıştır.
Tüm bunlar maalesef ahlaki değildir.
Milletimizin irfanı bu hakikatten uzak söylemleri idrak edecek seviyede ve hakkı teslim edecek durumdadır.(Belgelerin Türkçe ve İngilizcesi ektedir) pic.twitter.com/NqRcvRiLe9

— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) February 25, 2021

Period of taking on-site decisions

"We are now in a period prioritizing the normalization and the effects of the pandemic on social life, it is a period of taking on-site decisions," Koca also said. Touching on the increasing numbers of infections in some provinces, he said that the country will start to take measures based on the on-site decisions depending on the number of cases in provinces.

According to the parameters the provinces will declare their risk levels as low, medium, high or very high risk, said the Minister.

Over a question about complete lockdown in very high-risk cities, Koca said, "In this sense, we do not think about a complete lockdown right now, but as we all see the cases are on the rise every day," calling on the citizens to follow the measures strictly. (EKN/SD)