Only vaccinated people should work, employer confederation suggests

ISTANBUL

As the number of daily cases of COVID-19 infections continues to rise despite Turkey’s ongoing vaccination drive, a merchants’ confederation has made a call to its members, demanding only vaccinated people should work at businesses.

The Confederation of Turkish Tradesmen and Craftsmen (TESK) has issued a circular to 82 unions, 13 professional federations, and 3,200 chambers, urging maximum sensitivity that should be shown to the vaccines and not employing unvaccinated personnel in workplaces.

“The rapidly increasing number of cases and the spread of the Delta variant across the country have created new concerns for a ‘full closure’ in the tradesmen and craftsmen community,” said Bendevi Palandöken, the chairman of the confederation.

Palandöken said that the tradesmen, who have been struggling to survive for a year and a half due to the pandemic, cannot bear a new closure just as they struggle to keep businesses afloat.

Pointing out that the most important step in reducing the number of cases and getting rid of the pandemic is to be vaccinated, Palandöken stated that they have prepared a new circular regarding not employing unvaccinated personnel in workplaces.

Turkey has administered nearly 73.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in January, according to Health Ministry figures.

The country continues its intensive vaccination campaign to curb the virus’ spread, as everyone 16 and over is eligible for the vaccine shots.

According to Health Ministry data, more than 41 million people have gotten their first doses, while over 27.4 million have received their second jabs as well.

The ministry also confirmed 22,332 new infections and 79 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, while as many as 5,107 more patients recovered.

Meanwhile, the annual pre-harvest migration to Turkey’s eastern Black Sea region, one of the main producers of nuts, has started to worry health experts already.

More than 30,000 seasonal agricultural workers are expected to come to the Black Sea province of Ordu from Turkey’s eastern and southeastern region, for the harvest season that will start on Aug. 8.

The population of the province is expected to exceed 1.5 million with the arrival of residents living in big cities such as Istanbul and Ankara.

Özgür Enginyurt, an academic from Ordu University (ODU) Training and Research Hospital, drew attention to the fact that the number of patients hospitalized in pandemic wards started to increase again due to internal migration.

“I strongly recommend that our citizens get vaccinated. We have 30 days ahead of us. We must not miss this,” Enginyurt noted.