↓ SCROLL TO SEE MORE ↑

What are you looking for?

News

Current summer will be last with mandatory mask-wearing: Turkish minister

Current summer will be last with mandatory mask-wearing: Turkish minister

Current summer will be the last with mandatory mask-wearing rules, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Wednesday.

Koca’s remarks came at an online press conference after meeting with the country’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, where he spoke in detail about the country’s latest attempts to return life to normal.

Explaining Turkey’s recent success at reducing daily coronavirus case numbers from record highs of around 60,000 in April to as low as 6,000 this week, Koca said it was time for Turkey to begin another normalization period following drastic restrictions and an ambitious vaccination campaign.

But he still cautioned on what had happened in previous normalization periods, when people became too relaxed and dismissed the lingering coronavirus threat.

“After every normalization attempt where we have lost control, we have experienced deep wounds with exponential increases in case numbers and daily deaths. One thing is clear, as long as we fail to socialize in a controlled manner, we pay a heavy price medically, economically and sociologically,” the minister said.

Explaining that lockdowns were an effective tool to control the progress of an outbreak, he said the psychological costs of such heavy restrictions were undeniable as well.

“We shouldn’t waste the hard-earned results of the lockdown periods by trying to return to our old lifestyles immediately. While we have come a long way in our fight against the pandemic, we need to remind ourselves that the virus is still among us,” he said.

“We need to remember that personal precautions will play a much more important role from now on. We will try to join a life returning to normal while taking our own precautions. This will be the last summer when our faces will be perspiring with masks on them,” he added.