Turkey is moving towards a vaccine mandate for teachers, students and their families as the inoculation rate slows and infections grow.
Fahrettin Koca, the country’s health minister, said face-to-face education was “necessary” and that the government would implement measures to ensure that teachers, eligible students and the families they live with receive their recordings. Those who remain unvaccinated, especially parents, may need to show negative Covid-19 test results, he said.
“So far, our vaccination program has been a matter of encouragement and inclination. However, it is now a social duty that cannot be left to the choice of every citizen, “Koca said in a televised speech after a meeting with his coronavirus working group.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later said he did not believe the vaccine’s mandate would violate human rights, and a decision to open schools would be made at a government session next week.
The country’s education minister resigned last week amid criticism from teachers that schools were not ready to reopen in a safe manner as planned on September 6th. Most of the 18.2 million primary and secondary school students in Turkey have been studying at a distance since March 2020, with only occasional interruptions. personal instruction.
Vaccines are available to everyone in Turkey over the age of 18. According to the health ministry, about 37 percent of the population of 84 million people received two doses.
Turkey recorded 27,356 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, compared to about 4,000 in early July, when coronavirus restrictions were eased.
Koca also said the country plans to publish in a scientific journal its findings on the effectiveness of the third dose of the vaccine. The highest rate of protection was among individuals who received three doses of “inactive vaccine,” he said, and the next best level of protection was among those who received two doses of inactive vaccine and a third dose of mRNA vaccine.
Healthcare workers and people over the age of 50 were offered a third dose from the end of June. Turkey has also applied Chinese-made CoronaVac with inactivated pathogen and Pfizer / BioNTech mRNA vaccine, a new technology that instructs cells to produce a protein that elicits an immune response.
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