Universities urge students to get jabbed ahead of academic year

ISTANBUL

A number of universities in Turkey are calling on and encouraging students to have their two doses of vaccines against COVID-19 before the new academic year starts.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan previously said that unvaccinated university staff and students will be required to take PCR tests on a regular basis.

Ankara University in the capital has asked students to get two doses of the shots 15 days before classes begin. Students will be asked to provide vaccine cards and a valid HES code - contact tracing system - to enter facilities, including dormitories and gyms.

As part of the measures against the virus, the classes will be limited to 30 minutes, the university said.

Similarly, Hacettepe University, also in Ankara, called on students to have their two doses of the vaccine and will require unvaccinated students to get the PCR test taken 72 hours before if they are to enter facilities.

Previously, Kadir Has University in Istanbul said unvaccinated students would not be allowed onto campus.

Meanwhile, the rectors of 15 universities said all preparations have been made for the new academic year, calling on students and their parents to have the shots.

Elementary, secondary and high schools are also set to resume face-to-face education on Sept. 6.

More than 80 percent of teachers have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Demirören News Agency reported.

According to officials from the Education Ministry, over 72 percent of teachers have been given two doses of the jab.

“In terms of the total number of vaccines administered Turkey ranked seventh in the world ahead of Germany, which has a similar population to Turkey but is a producer of the vaccine, ” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter, praising the country’s inoculation drive.

Turkey began its vaccination program in mid-January. To date, it has administered nearly 91 million doses of the COVID-19 jabs. Some 47 million have received their first doses while around 36 million people have been fully vaccinated.