The Health Ministry made good on its promise to remove one of the two remaining COVID-19 mask mandates as the pandemic drastically receded. Starting on Monday, masks are no longer required while boarding mass transit, from buses to airplanes. Thus, hospitals are now the only places where wearing a protective mask is still required.

Masks have been mandatory in the country since the pandemic made its foray into Turkey in 2020. After ups and downs, the country appears to have overcome its struggle against the devastating infection which killed more than 97,000 people. Earlier, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that the mask mandate would be lifted if the number of daily cases is below 1,000 for three consecutive days. Sunday was the last day and Koca announced the mask mandate decision on Twitter. "Masks are no longer mandatory, except for in hospitals. But after all this experience, we can keep our masks with us in crowded closed places, especially on public transportation," he said. The country lifted its longtime indoor mask mandate in April.

Turkey registered 864 new coronavirus infections over the past day, according to official data released on Sunday. The Health Ministry said two related deaths and 1,107 recoveries were also recorded, while 129,961 tests were done. To stem the spread of the virus, Turkey has administered more than 147.72 million vaccine doses since it launched an immunization drive in January 2021. More than 528 million COVID-19 cases and over 6.28 million deaths have been reported in at least 192 countries and regions since December 2019, according to the U.S. Johns Hopkins University.

Not everyone was aware of the removal of the mask mandate in mass transit. In the country's most crowded city Istanbul, which once accounted for the majority of coronavirus cases in Turkey, some were still wearing masks while others enjoyed a ride with fewer restrictions. Some deliberately wore masks, fearing the infections may still be around.

Latif Mavzer, a bus passenger in Istanbul, told Demirören News Agency (DHA) on Monday as he traveled in a bus without a mask for the first time in years, said he supported the lifting of the mandate. "Most people were not observing it anyway. I was wearing it recently more out of respect for others fearing infections (than fearing being infected myself). People used to argue, fight each other when someone did not wear a mask. At least, I won't see such quarrels anymore," he said.

Münire Belkuş, another passenger, was concerned about the decision. "This disease is not over yet. I see everyone going around and the streets are more crowded. Everyone thinks it is over. People should remain cautious. I will do so," the masked passenger said. "People don't wear it but I see they are a risk. I see them coughing constantly in crowds. They are dangerous to others," she added.

For this new stage in the pandemic, Turkey owes much to mass vaccination as well as the omicron variant, which, respectively, protected the population and boosted immunity with fewer fatalities and hospitalizations. On Monday, the Ankara Training and Research Hospital in the Turkish capital, the first "quarantine and pandemic hospital," announced the shutdown of its COVID-19 ward and intensive care units due to the absence of new coronavirus patients.

The hospital treated some 11,000 patients in the past two years. It made the headlines in February 2020, one month before Turkey reported the first coronavirus case, when Turkish citizens evacuated from China were placed in quarantine there. A total of 2,970 patients have been taken into intensive care at the hospital which also lost one of its doctors to COVID-19. Chief Physician professor Rahmi Kılıç told DHA on Monday that they initially served patients or people in need of quarantine, including those evacuated from Iran. "Later, our country started building new pandemic hospitals and we expanded our services as well. We had one intensive care unit dedicated to coronavirus patients but we had to expand it more. At the height of the pandemic, we had 100 intensive care beds and 150 normal beds with patients," Kılıç said, pointing out that they had no coronavirus patients at all now, although they had preparations in place to reopen COVID-19 wards in case of a new surge.

Professor Günay Tuncer Ertem, from the infectious diseases department of the hospital, recalls the diverse profile of patients. "We had babies whose mothers were infected and a patient at the age of 98. That patient and a 1-year-old patient were among the oldest and youngest fatalities. Now, it has been four days since we discharged our last COVID-19 patient after (s/he) recovered," Ertem said.