While the citizens were waiting to breathe easily with the lifting of the bans, calls for restrictions began to come as the cases increased again. Kemal Noyan, Chairman of the Federation of Family Physicians Associations, warned against the increase in cases and said, "We can go back to the beginning in the pandemic."
The number of cases in the Covid-19 pandemic has increased in recent weeks. With the increase in the cases, the citizen, who has been breathing comfortably for a while, started to be called for vaccination again. While the physicians warned about the increase in the cases, Noyan pointed out that if the measures were not taken, the pandemic could be reversed.
“MASK REQUIREMENT SHOULD CONTINUE IN PUBLIC AREAS”
Emphasizing that thinking that the pandemic is over is the biggest obstacle in the fight against the disease, Noyan added, “The mask requirement in public areas and health centers should continue, preventive medicine services should be strengthened, and the other workload on family physicians who carry out vaccination services should be reduced. It has become very important for 65 years and older, those with chronic diseases and low immune system people not to be in closed places to protect themselves from these new variants of Covid-19, to wear masks and to have reminder vaccinations for citizens who have been vaccinated before, and for citizens who have never been vaccinated to apply to the nearest health center by making a vaccination appointment.”
“We think that the sixth wave may be happening”
Making statements to our newspaper, the Chairman of the Federation of Family Physicians Associations (AHEF), Kemal Noyan, reminded that family physicians continue to work during the peak periods of the pandemic, and drew attention to the recurrence of the pandemic, which was thought to have ended with the lifting of the restrictions. Noyan said, “Unfortunately, due to the rapid abandonment of the Covid-19 measures, the number of cases has increased both in the world and in Turkey in the last few weeks, when we say that the Covid-19 pandemic has come to an end. BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of the variant Omicron responsible in more than 50 percent of cases. As a result, we as Federation of Family Physicians Associations think that the fight against the Covid-19 disease has not ended yet, and that the sixth wave of the pandemic may be experiencing.”