Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca answered journalists' questions after the Cabinet Meeting at the Presidential Complex. In response to the question about the Eris variant and whether there is anything to worry about, Koca said, "When Covid-19 emerged, it contained many unknowns. A vaccine had to be developed early in order to combat in terms of both the virus and the diseases. In this context, we produced the vaccine TURKOVAC with reliable ancient techniques, known as inactive. We now know the disease. We know the virus. We follow the effects and changes of all mutations. There has never been an increase in the virulence, which is the disease-causing effect of the virus when it first emerged, in these mutations. The mutations had a weaker power to cause disease and we are following this closely as I said before. In this sense, no new measures are needed for the Eris variant. I have already talked about this clearly before. We now know the disease very well and there is nothing to worry about." After being reminded of the statements of some countries that they have developed special vaccines against the new variant and started new vaccination programs, Minister Koca answered the question whether such a vaccination program will be in Türkiye as follows: "We all witness that some countries are trying to set an example with vaccine pressure. Just because some countries bow to vaccine pressure does not mean that we will bow to vaccine pressure. It is not possible for us to bow to global Covid vaccine pressure. Türkiye has its own program and we will not start a vaccine program just because someone wants it. We are implementing our own program and we are definitely not considering implementing a new vaccine program for Covid-19 at the moment. That's just so clear.""Hospitalization rates are quite low" On the question of whether there is an increase in the number of patients, Minister Koca said the following: “As you know, the virulence, which is the ability to cause illness, of the Eris variant is lower but its contagiousness is higher. We can say that the number of patients increased during this period. However, the hospitalization rates are quite low. It does not cause a severe disease. It has a milder course. Covid-19 turned into an upper respiratory tract infection like cold and flu. This was what we expected. There is no need to panic. There is no question of restrictions and closures. So, what do we need to do to protect ourselves? Now all our citizens know that we recommend those who are sick isolate themselves, do not go out in public, that those who are at risk especially protect themselves, stay away from crowded places, and use a mask when needed. We do not have any other suggestions, nor do we have a new vaccination program. So, there is absolutely no need for a mass vaccination program.”"The children should be fully vaccinated under the immunization program" Koca, who said "we care about the flu vaccine during this period", emphasized that they recommend those who are in risk groups and determined to be vaccinated against influenza to be vaccinated as soon as possible.Minister Koca stated that flu vaccines are provided free of charge to those in the risk groups and determined to be vaccinated, and continued as follows: "I need to mention about something important at this point. We do not have a vaccination program for Covid-19, but as you know, our childhood immunization vaccination program continues successfully and we think it is very important. We follow the childhood vaccination program carefully. Our citizens should be sensitive about this issue and the children should be fully vaccinated under the immunization program. The infrastructure construction for hygiene vaccine and biotechnological product research and production, which we commissioned to produce these vaccines, continues. We aim to localize all our vaccines. In addition, the production process of the 3 vaccines we previously announced has started with technology transfer. We attach importance to the production of chickenpox, rabies and Hepatitis-A vaccines through technology transfer, especially for the children."
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