Turkey made history in health over past year: President

ANKARA

Turkey has made history in the field of health with the devotion of its health personnel, hospitals and strong infrastructure during the fight against COVID-19 over the past year, the nation’s president said Thursday.

“With the sacrifice of our health army, our hospitals with a constant rise in their numbers and expanded capacities and our strong infrastructure, we have made history in the field of health,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter, sharing efforts made in one year since the disease was first seen in the country.

Under services, Erdogan recalled that a Coronavirus Operation Center and the country's Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board were established.

He said local diagnosis kits were produced and the Filiation, Isolation and Tracing System was established, while a mobile application called Life Fits Into Home was put into service.

Inactive vaccines also started to be applied in the country, Erdogan said.

Referring to the services in vaccination, he said: “We have administered over 10 million vaccines in a very short time.”

On Jan. 14, Turkey began a mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign starting with health care workers along with top officials to encourage public confidence in vaccines.

Erdogan said city hospitals were opened in Istanbul, Konya and Tekirdag provinces and noted that 25 new hospital buildings as well as 11 annex hospital buildings became operational over the past year.

The number of health facilities rose 55% over one year and the bed capacity of adult intensive care units by 51%, he added.

Recalling that Turkey produced an indigenous medical ventilator during the process, he said it was both used at home and exported to 20 countries.

He said that during the last year, millions of infected people and those who had contact with the cases were tracked, while over 19 million people went through health checks at border crossings.

Later Thursday, Erdogan also shared details of Turkey’s contribution to the global fight against the coronavirus on his Twitter account.

Accordingly, to follow pandemic-related developments, provide help and support to Turkish citizens and coordination with other countries, on March 25, 2020, a coordination and support center was established to work under the Foreign Ministry.

The ministry’s call center also replied to over 163,000 calls received from Turkish citizens across the world, who were also provided support and help by 249 diplomatic representatives of the country.

In addition, Turkey evacuated over 100,000 Turkish citizens, including 363 COVID patients and 5,500 foreign citizens via flights to various parts of the world.

Turkey also co-sponsored a UN resolution promoting international cooperation for the purchase of medical equipment and vaccines to fight against the pandemic.

On March 1, Erdogan announced the easing of coronavirus restrictions based on circumstances in individual provinces.

Since last December, Turkey has been implementing a curfew on weeknights.