Turkey Discards Outdoor Mask-Wearing Rule

By Justin Mays:

Covid-19 cases have decreased immensely in Turkey, all thanks to the measures that the Turkish Ministry of Health imposed. A large number of people were vaccinated and there has been perpetual growth of mass immunity among the residents hence the ministry is discarding the outdoor mask requirement.

The Minister of Health, Fahrettin Koca highlighted that when the room has adequate ventilation, people are not mandated to wear masks.

“This should be the main principle; we are not completely removing the masks from our lives. We will still be carrying them to wear when necessary. We need to move from the phase where the entire society fights against the disease by introducing restrictions to a phase where people should act individually to protect themselves”, he said.

Students who test positive for Covid-19 should be isolated but the rest of the students should keep going to school. The Minister also indicated that a decision to give citizens the fourth dose has not been made and there is no need to perceive Covid-19 as the pandemic as we did before.

“If the fourth dose is necessary, it may be given to people at risk, those that are immunosuppressed”, said the Minister.

People who do not have Covid-19 symptoms will not need to be tested and the coronavirus contact tracing system (Life Fits into Home), the HES code will no longer be requested when one enters a public building.

The minister made it clear that some experts think that we are not out of the bush yet and it is early to make this decision. However, the public must continue to take precautions whenever they see that their health might be compromised. The public still needs to wear protective face masks in buses, planes, theaters, cinemas, schools, and health facilities.

Minister Koca added that 8% of the people who tested positive for Covid-19 died while 92% had been diagnosed with other illnesses earlier. Statistics recorded in the first week of February 2022 showed that Istanbul had 717 Covid-19 cases, Izmir had 1.017 while had 1.323 cases.