TTB's reaction to Scientific Board quarantine decisions: Those responsibles should resign

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) issued a statement about the meeting of the Ministry of Health’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board regarding the decision which allows vaccinated people not to quarantine after being in contact with people testing positive and not to carry out PCR tests for those who do not show symptoms.

"We call on those responsible who continue to put the public health at risk with the decisions announced to resign," the TTB stated.
The statement, which criticised the approaches of the Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, who announced the decisions, and Istanbul Provincial Health Director Prof. Dr. Kemal Memişoğlu, who said that the outbreak would be brought under control by individual measures in February, also evaluated the situation as, “indicating the surrender to the pandemic”.

The TTB statement had the following:
"The approaches of the Minister of Health, who announced the decisions to the public, and the provincial health director of Istanbul (the epicenter of the outbreak), who predicted that the epidemic would be brought under control in February by individual measures, indicate surrender in the face of the pandemic.

With the Health Transformation Program, the health care strategy focused on therapeutic services and hospitals has collapsed. Primary health services, which are weakened and organized with individual targets, have been helpless in the face of the pandemic, which is a social threat.

With the Omicron variant, the pandemic has entered a new phase and it is known that this variant can make even vaccinated people sick, is very contagious and can infect most of the people in a short time.

While testing and vaccination must be encouraged and an effective and rapid vaccination is required because of the increased infectiousness of the virus, reducing the number of tests causes the real extent of the disease to be not grasped by the society. The fact that no measures were taken in health institutions after these decisions and practices shows that the lives of health workers are also ignored."

TTB listed its demands as follows:

• Social and individual measures should be implemented together.
• Unvaccinated and not-fully vaccinated people should be vaccinated with an effective and fast campaign.
• A vaccination programme should be initiated for 5-11 years old.
• In addition to PCR, rapid tests should be used; the number of tests performed daily should be increased; contact and risk groups screening should be done with rapid screening tests.
• People who had close contacts to infected persons and have been potentially infected should be quarantined even if they have received their booster vaccines.
• A named economic and social support programme should be implemented for isolated and quarantined families.
• Public places should be provided for family members with housing conditions that have the potential to increase transmission where they will spend the quarantine period.
• We are reminding that the free and qualified masks are vital against the peak of the Omicron variant. FFP2/N95 masks should be distributed to employees who work at places that have high risk.
• Measures should be taken to avoid crowds. The capacity of communal places should be limited to 50%. Unvaccinated people should be prevented from entering these places. These recommendations also apply to the public transport. These precautions should be observed in face-to-face activities and activities should be held online if possible.
• Public inspection of ventilation in closed environments should be ensured.
• Working life is another area where crowds are observed. Factories and public institutions should operate with 50% capacity. Employees should not lose any rights in this process.
• Preparations should be made for health institutions exceeding their capacities. (EVRENSEL DAILY)