Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Monday that they had no intention of shutting down schools, following reports of a new closure amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Professor Alper Şener, a member of the ministry’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, has told Demirören News Agency (DHA) recently that Turkey may consider shutting down schools if the daily cases leap to 60,000.
Koca tweeted that news of the possibility of school closures was wrong and the board has no such agenda. “Statements of our member of the Scientific Advisory Board while highlighting the importance of vaccination is misinterpreted,” the minister said.
Turkey has long faced a surge in daily cases, whose number fluctuated above and below 30,000. On Sunday, the number dropped below 24,000 for the first time in weeks while 201 people died in one day.
The country reopened schools for in-person education while the cases were still relatively low. The reopening came months after the start of a normalization process during which all curfews and most other restrictions were lifted, following a strict lockdown. Schools were closed for most of 2020, while authorities and experts have voiced concern that further delays to in-person education would hurt children’s development in the long run.
