Koca

Turkish doctors wearing PPE hold placards reading 'you cannot manage, we are exhausted, we die' during a protest in front of the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, 15 September 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/TOLGA BOZOGLU

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has shown hints that the end of the coronavirus pandemic is nearing while visiting tradesmen in the southeastern province of Adıyaman unmasked and shaking hands with them.

"We are going back to our old days when measures or curbs did not exist," Koca said on April 25.

The weekly COVID-19 incidence rates in Turkey's three largest cities, Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, have declined.

Legal regulations designed to prevent violence against healthcare workers may be given final touches soon, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said.

Healthcare workers are demanding more effective laws to protect them when they practice their profession.

No schools are currently suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Turkey's Education Minister Mahmut Özer has said, as the number of daily cases has been lingering around 95,000 across the country.

Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has reiterated that the Omicron-triggered rise in the virus case is not likely to cause problems that were experienced in the early chapters of the pandemic but warned that people still need to take necessary precautions.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Dec. 11 that the first six cases of COVID-19's Omicron variant have been detected in Turkey.

"The symptoms are very mild," Koca said, adding that there was no hospitalization for these patients. The minister's remarks came during the budget talks in the parliament. 

Turkey's southern provinces have recorded the sharpest increase in weekly COVID-19 cases, data given by a top senior official has shown.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca disclosed the weekly figures of COVID-19 cases throughout the country recorded between Nov. 20 and 26.

Turkey is not presently considering imposing lockdowns or other stricter measures despite the emergence of the new COVID-19 strain, Omicron, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said, renewing calls for the public to get vaccinated and adhere to basic anti-virus rules, noting that millions of people are still not fully protected.

A little more than 80 percent of people aged 18 and above have been given two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Turkey, but some provinces are still lagging behind in the jab drive, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said.

Nearly 50 million adults in the country have been double jabbed since the country started vaccinating people against the coronavirus in January.