District governor in Mardin prevents trilingual campaign to encourage vaccination

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The southeastern provinces of Mardin and Urfa are the two provinces with the lowest vaccination rates. The share of people who received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine is 51.4 percent in Urfa and 52.8 percent in Mardin, according to the Ministry of Health's tracker.

Also, these two are the only provinces that are labeled red, which indicates the high-risk category.

As both provinces are predominantly populated by Kurds and Arabs, the Mardin Medical Chamber and the Union of Healthcare and Social Service Workers (SES) prepared a campaign in Turkish, Kurdish and Arabic.

However, the Sub-governor's Office of Kızıltepe banned the campaign, citing a 15-day demonstration ban issued by the Governor's Office of Mardin.

High infection, low vaccination rates

Dr. Özgür Bilek, a member of the Mardin Medical Chamber and the co-chair of the SES Mardin Branch, criticized the ban, pointing out that the number of daily cases in the province has been close to 1,000 recently.

Preparing posters and leaflets in three languages, they intended to create awareness and encourage people to get vaccinated, he said.

They were not prevented when they organized a similar event in Mardin's Artuklu district last week, he noted.

"They allowed our event in Artuklu, so we made our statement and distributed our leaflets. There was even a vaccination team of the Provincial Directorate of Health. People came and got vaccinated," said Bilek, noting that Kızıltepe is the most populated district of Mardin.

Mostly Kurdish populated eastern and southeastern parts of the country have generally lower vaccination rates, shows the Health Ministry's map.

Pointing out the "alarming" situation in Mardin and Urfa, Bilek said, "There is no initiative to increase vaccination numbers and the existing initiatives are prevented.

"To prevent the spread of the virus and peoples' infection, a vaccination rate of 75 percent is needed. Currently, we are at serious risk. This is also reflected in the Ministry of Health's daily case numbers.

"The number of daily cases is around 600-700 in Mardin. But these are only those who have complaints, go to the hospital and test positive. If we include those who don't apply to the hospitals, then we talk about 1,000 cases. Both the number of cases is high and the vaccination rate is low."

They will apply once again to carry out the campaign, said the doctor. (HA/VK)