President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received Minister of Health Dr. Fahrettin Koca and accompanying Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board at Presidential Complex.
Delivering his speech, President Erdoğan expressed his gratitude to the members of Scientific Advisory Board for their endless services to Türkiye and the nation since the beginning of outbreak.
Recalling that the last 2 years had passed under the shadow of outbreak, Erdoğan stated this process, which first started as a health threat, turned into an all-out crisis in a short while that affected every realm of life including production, consumption, transportation, tourism, sports, education and employment.
Erdoğan congratulated Scientific Advisory Board performing under the coordination of Minister of Health Koca for their struggle that set an example for the world.
“We brought the hospitals over 16 thousand beds into service.”
While the people in other countries have limited access to the healthcare organizations, Erdoğan reminded that they brought the hospitals over 16 thousand beds into service with city hospitals, public hospitals and emergency hospitals and added:
“We managed to meet the needs of society during the struggle with outbreak. We were always by our nation’s side with the applications such as Vefa Grubu consisting of volunteers and public officials. Our nation made great contributions to the process with their patience and endurance, as well. Our guide during the struggle with outbreak was the science and the efforts of our scientists.”
“We have showed the differences of our humane and conscientious sensibilities during the outbreak, as well.”
Erdoğan said “in order to protect our citizens against the virus, we rapidly brought every method and every instrument developed around the world, and we especially featured the struggle with outbreak” and added “we developed our own methods to combat. We succeed lots of things including domestic ventilator, diagnostic kit, drug and vaccine production with the efforts of our scientists. Today, we are one of the 9 countries to produce its own vaccine. In order to combat with outbreak, we also shared every product we made, and every experience we got with the brother nations around the world. We have showed the differences of our humane and conscientious sensibilities during the outbreak, as well by providing medical aid to 160 countries and 12 international organizations around the world.”
“We shall never forget the services.”
Reiterating his gratitude to the scientists who dedicated almost all of their working hours for the past two years to the struggle against outbreak without expecting any material gain in return, Erdoğan underlined that we shall never forget the services delivered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by our 1.3 million-strong healthcare army, first and foremost by our Minister and his team.
Erdoğan also congratulated the personnel of the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Family and Social Services, Presidency of Religious Affairs and all the other bodies who contributed to the struggle.
“The requirement of wearing masks indoors has been lifted totally.”
Stating that almost all the European countries abolished the restrictions as the pandemic ceased to be a mass threat, Erdoğan noted:
“We believe that Türkiye has also reached this level. Ministry of Health will be still conducting their activities within the framework of Pandemic Management Action Plan. The requirement of wearing masks indoors, in force for about three years as part of the Coronavirus measures, has been lifted totally. Mask-use will continue for some more time only inside public transport vehicles and healthcare facilities until the number of cases falls below 1,000.
The Scientific Advisory Board recommends that only people of advanced age as well as people who have chronic diseases, are suspected of infection, and have been in contact with risky groups should continue to wear a mask. Moreover, The Board also recommends that all citizens, especially those having chronic diseases and the elders, must administer their vaccines, notably the booster doses. Our domestic vaccine TURKOVAC, whose efficacy has been proven, is recommended especially in terms of the booster doses. Therefore, the vaccination centres in family health centres and public hospitals will continue to carry out their activities in a way to meet the needs.”
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