After almost two years with the coronavirus pandemic, Turkey announced the suspension of the mandatory mask rule outdoors for the public.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced the decision after a meeting of the ministry’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board in the capital Ankara on Wednesday. He also announced that Hayat Eve Sığar (HES – Life Fits Into Home) codes will no longer be required for citizens who had to show them at the entrance of shopping malls and similar crowded venues. Koca added that the fight against the pandemic would now continue with vaccination.
The decision comes after Turkey broke daily case records in the pandemic last month, only to see the cases drop to December levels. The unprecedented surge brought case levels to above 100,000 daily at times and was tied to the fast-spreading omicron variant. The same variant is also responsible for milder cases that do not require hospitalization for most patients. Eventually, cases started decreasing again this month and were 56,780 as of Wednesday evening.
Experts say mass vaccination is the only way out of pandemic, combined with mass immunity, which can be achieved if more people are infected and recovered or vaccinated.
Since the vaccination program was launched in the country in January 2021, more than 145 million doses have been administered. More than 52 million people have received two doses of vaccines. However, authorities say booster shots, at least one, are required for the vaccinated for full protection against variants. Official figures show more than 27 million people were administered third shots. No data is available on fourth and fifth shots, which are now available for people who were inoculated in the early days of the vaccination program.
The vaccination rate is above 80% in most of the country’s 81 provinces, except a few in the southeast.
