It has been announced that in Turkey, which has seen a record number of Covid-19 cases, PCR tests will not be performed for those who do not show symptoms, and the quarantine period has been reduced to 7 days.
The number of cases, which reached about 80,000, has decreased in recent days and positive cases have been announced at the level of 60,000.
Speaking to the Milli Gazete, Prof. Dr. Tacettin İnandı evaluated the developments and the latest situation in the coronavirus pandemic. About updating the quarantine period to 7 days, Prof. Dr. Tacettin İnandı said, “The incubation period of the Omicron variant seems shorter than the previous ones. The vast majority of patients appear within 3-4 days of exposure. Therefore, quarantine periods are shortened. The main purpose here is to enable people to participate in social life as early as possible. When we evaluate the shortening of the quarantine period from this perspective, it seems appropriate.”
“TEST QUEUES MAY BE LONG”
İnandı evaluated the decision not to be tested for those who did not show symptoms, with these words:
"Actually, it was reported that it was applied to those who had symptoms before. In fact, those who were asymptomatic were not tested. Even contacts were not tested. So why was this explanation needed? Possibly to curb the growing and ever-increasing demand for testing. However, there will be a test demand that is difficult to meet in the coming days. Test queues can get long, so be prepared for that."
“OMICRON CAN COST A SIGNIFICANT LOSS ON THE HEALTH SYSTEM”
Indicating that he expected the number of patients to rise much higher than this in the coming days, “In previous waves, the daily number of patients in the world had never exceeded 1 million. Currently, the daily number of patients has exceeded 3 millions. In England, which is close to us in terms of population size and better than us in vaccination, the daily numbers exceeded 200,000. More than 300,000 in France. Turkey can also be expected to reach these figures. While the Omicron variant progress slightly, however, it can place a significant burden on health systems. It can cause significant problems because people who have been sick before can get sick again and avoid the vaccine,” İnandı added.