Minister urges to ‘comply with pandemic conditions’

ISTANBUL

As Turkey’s daily COVID-19 cases have been rising steadily in the past few weeks and lingering around 25,000 over the last couple of days, Turkish authorities continue to call on citizens to comply with pandemic measures.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca once again called on the people to comply “with the conditions of the fight” against the pandemic.

Even though pandemic-related conditions will have to continue for some more time and they’re being followed by the majority, Koca said, only a part of society chose to act as though there is no pandemic.

“What is right for all of us is to comply with the conditions of the fight against the pandemic while bringing life closer to normal,” Koca said on Twitter, sharing a vaccination map that assigns colors to provinces based on vaccination rates.

Turkey has so far administered nearly 120 million doses since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in January.

More than 56.1 million people have received their first doses, while over 50.2 million have been fully vaccinated. The number of people who have received their third COVID-19 vaccine doses crossed 12 million.

Turkey’s confirmed cases of the coronavirus increased by 24,467 in the past 24 hours, and 222 more people have died, the Health Ministry announced on Nov. 25.

Meanwhile, Professor Mehmet Ceyhan, a leading expert in infectious diseases, said the Phase-3 study of the “Molnupiravir” drug, which will be added to Turkey’s treatment guideline for COVID-19, has not yet been completed.

“The company has been approved for immediate use with the interim results in the Phase-3 study, so there is no definitive data on how effective Molnupiravir is yet. Intermediate results can always mislead people,” Ceyhan noted.

He said it is necessary to wait for all the results of the Phase-3 study on the effectiveness of the Molnupiravir.