Minister of Health, Dr. Fahrettin Koca, Minister of Justice, Abdulhamit Gül, and Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Mehmet Cahit Turan, delivered statements following the meeting with the Coronavirus Scientific Board.
"Visitor limitation will be introduced at hospitals"
Noting that visitor limitations will be introduced at hospitals, Koca added, "Visitors will not be allowed during working hours and only 1 visitor per patient will be allowed after working hours. We are coordinating with the Ministry of Family and Labor to make sure that the elderly, who need to renew their medical reports, do not need to go to the hospital. They will provide information in a few days."
Coronavirus call center
Koca informed everyone that they would establish a Coronavirus Call Center and continued:
"We will open up a 184 call center where people can easily get in contact when they have a symptom. An algorithm will help callers with regard to their symptoms. So, people should not go to medical facilities with the smallest concern."
“We ask our people definitely not to travel abroad”
Noting that they were strictly warning people to travel abroad, Koca added, “We ask our people definitely not to travel at this point when number of cases is on the rise.”
"All 5 cases are contacts"
Koca said, "First two cases were contacts. I am sorry to inform you that we have three new cases, all of which are contacts within the same family. All 5 cases are contacts. The following four cases were isolated after the detection of the first case."
"If we take precautions and prevent transmission, life will go back to normal"
"If we take precautions and prevent transmission, life will go back to normal", said Koca and emphasized the importance of the following 4 to 5 weeks.
Here are some of the highlights of Minister Gül's remarks:
Gül said that people showing symptoms will only be allowed into prisons and penitentiaries after they go through medical examination and treatment.
Prison visitations suspended
"Visitations at open and closed prisons and penitentiaries are suspended for two weeks", said Gül and added that this decision will be reviewed in two weeks.
Here are some of the highlights of Minister Turhan's remarks:
"We introduced flight bans with China in February 3, Iran in February 23, and with Irak, Italy and South Korea in February 29. Now, we only allow empty aircrafts from these companies to evacuate their nationals. Flights to Germany, France, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands will be suspended as of 8 am tomorrow until April 17."
Turhan also noted that they added additional trips to Ankara-Istanbul and Istanbul-Ankara high-speed train routes on March 13, 14 and 15.
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