No schools ‘currently suspended’ due to virus

GAZİANTEP/ISTANBUL

No schools are currently suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Turkey’s Education Minister Mahmut Özer has said, as the number of daily cases has been lingering around 95,000 across the country.

Speaking during a visit to the southeastern province of Gaziantep, Özer said in-person education, which started again on Feb. 7 after a short two-week-long winter break, will continue with the same determination.

“We will conclude this semester with in-person education by fulfilling the criteria recommended by the Health Ministry and the Coronavirus Science Board,” the minister noted, stressing that currently there is no school with all classes closed due to the pandemic.

“Schools will come out of this successfully by taking every precaution,” Özer added.

He also said that students who have a chronic illness and document this with a health report and those who need special education at all levels will be exempted from the attendance requirement this term.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Twitter that a system that makes it possible to issue reports for bedridden patients at home has started in some pilot provinces.

Thanks to this system, which removes the requirement for bedbound patients to visit hospitals, it will be ensured that they get the drugs and medical supplies they need without leaving their homes.

Koca also urged people to be careful once again to protect those with chronical illness and the elderly with weak immune systems “who are unable to fight another disease.”

“The fact that cases from Omicron are generally mild does not mean that everything else is going well. First of all, let’s not forget that the death toll is high,” he said.

Turkey’s confirmed cases of the coronavirus increased by 94,730 in the past 24 hours, and 309 more people have died, the Health Ministry announced on Feb. 15.

Speaking about the increase in the number of cases in certain parts of the country, Professor Alper Şener, a member of the Coronavirus Science Board, said that the fourth peak in the number of COVID-19 cases was experienced in the provinces of the Aegean region, especially in İzmir, since the beginning of the pandemic.

Expressing that a decrease is expected in the number of cases starting from next week, Şener stated that sharp decreases occurred after the rapidly rising numbers in every country where the Omicron variant is seen.