People should continue to wear facemasks: Experts

ISTANBUL

Experts have recommended all citizens continue to wear facemasks voluntarily indoors and outdoors, while the number coronavirus infections have increased.

According to the health ministry, the number of infections across the country reached 26,635 with an 11,000 rise between June 20 and 26. In the mentioned week, 17 people died due to the infections.

“There has been a rise in infections in the previous months. If this goes on, we may face a new wave,” Tufan Tükek, a professor from Istanbul University Medical Faculty Hospital, told the daily Milliyet.

Reminding that wearing a facemask indoors is essential, Tükek said: “We should wear masks not because it is mandatory, but it is needful. I see that many people come to hospitals unmasked.”

As the pandemic situation improved, Türkiye lifted the outdoor mask mandate in March and scrapped the indoor mask mandate partially on April 26, with the rule to be followed only in hospitals and while on public transportation.

As of May 30, the country scrapped the mandate for wearing face masks on public transport. People are required to only wear them in hospitals.

“We had become used to wearing masks, it can be hard once again to make people wear them.”

Serap Şimşek Yavuz, the board chair of KLİMİK Society, agreed with Tükek.

“Especially on public transport and in indoor crowded places, masks should be put on,” she said and added: “There is a serious hike in infections in Istanbul. Those who have been infected before are now living with the disease again like flu.”

According to Yavuz, the real problem is that the “youth contaminate the virus to the high-risk groups.”

Reminding the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday, the expert stated, “If the public hesitates to wear masks on public transport, then a new wave of infections may begin after the holiday.”

Bülent Ertuğrul, a physician expert on infectious diseases, advised all those people with chronic diseases to have booster shots to avoid COVID-19.

On June 30, Fahrettin Koca, Türkiye’s health minister, said the bad days of the coronavirus pandemic are over and refused the allegations that face masks will be mandatory again in the fall.