Over the past few months, Turkey has grappled with the omicron variant of the coronavirus, which skyrocketed the number of daily cases. But, as in every pandemic wave, it appears to have peaked and has subsequently entered a downward trend.
Following a drop in daily cases, which decreased to 37,407 on Tuesday, after breaking records last month, the country is seeing less burden on the health care system stemming from the pandemic. Last week, intensive care units were eased off the burden of infections, while the pneumonia rate significantly dropped as well.
The Health Ministry had scrapped some restrictions after a sharp drop in the cases combined with a lessened severity of the cases. Wearing protective masks outdoors is no longer mandatory, while the HES (Hayat Eve Sığar) code, a unique code assigned to each citizen, is not required now for entry at certain venues. However, the decisions were not unanimously approved by the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board advising the government on restrictions, as Health Minister Fahrettin Koca had earlier pointed out.
Some experts also argue that ending mask and code requirements may increase the number of cases again, but they also predict the cases will see another sharp drop even if they increase in the coming days. Projections based on the course of pandemics in the countries, which applied similar measures with Turkey and subsequently ended them, and the trends in the pandemic show the cases would considerably drop by mid-March.
Current figures are already a harbinger of better days in the pandemic that has tightened its grip over Turkey since March 2020. The rate of positive tests dropped below 10%, the same level before the fast-spreading omicron variant raised the alarm in the country. COVID-19 R (reproduction) number is around 0.7. On average, R is the number of people that one infected person will pass on the virus to.
Hospitals report more vacant beds for the first time in five months, while emergency rooms have almost no COVID-19 patients in need of emergency care. Hospitalizations were already decreasing in the country. The rate of pneumonia among coronavirus patients dropped by 75%.
Yet, the risk prevails for people with chronic illnesses and those aged 65 and above. Experts recommend full vaccination for people in the risk groups. Turkey relies on vaccination programs and mass immunity to overcome the pandemic. Authorities are now considering ending the quarantine practice for patients but this will require increasing the number of vaccinated, achieving further herd immunity, stabilizing the current figures and absence of a new variant. So far, more than 146 million doses have been administered in the country, while the number of people administered two doses of vaccine has exceeded 52.8 million.