Health minister calls on public to avoid complacency

ISTANBUL

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has called on the public to avoid complacency and believing that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 causes a milder disease, urging everyone to get their booster shots.

“We are fighting a variant of the virus that spreads rapidly and causes a milder course of the disease. This should not be passed onto you as complacency,” Koca said on Twitter.

Koca reiterated that there are people with underlying health conditions that could experience COVID-19 much more severely.

“Let’s be cautious. Regardless of old or young, let’s get our reminder dose [booster] vaccinations,” he said.

Koca also thanked football clubs that advocated for the locally-developed vaccine Turkovac on their players’ jerseys in games played during the weekend.

Turkey reported nearly 88,000 new coronavirus cases on Feb. 6, the Health Ministry said.

The ministry confirmed 87,934 infections, 201 related deaths, and 76,552 recoveries over the past day. As many as 412,352 virus tests were also carried out across the country.

To counter the spread of the virus, Turkey administered over 142.91 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched an immunization drive in January last year.

More than 57.49 million people have received their first jab, while over 52.5 million have been fully vaccinated. Third booster shots have also been given to more than 25.57 million people.