It has been a year since the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, which came out of the city of Wuhan in China and spread to the whole world, also came to Turkey.
First seen in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and rapidly spreading all over the world, causing millions of people to die, Covid-19 first appeared in Turkey exactly one year ago.
In January, when the coronavirus began to spread, Turkey became one of the countries that took precautions and decided to screen the passengers on planes from China with thermal cameras at the airports after landing.
However, although it was stated that the disease has not yet been encountered in the following weeks, with the increase in the number of cases in neighboring countries such as Georgia, Greece and Iraq, the virus has almost reached the border of Turkey.
As a matter of fact, on March 11, 2020, Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca announced that a person who caught the virus during his trip to Europe was the first coronavirus case in the country.
Turkey has been fighting the coronavirus since March 11, 2020. With the measures taken in March, Turkey brought restrictions against the rapidly spreading virus. Schools have been suspended since March 12. Places of worship were closed. Intercity entries and exits are prohibited. A curfew was declared with the call to “stay at home”.
According to the data in the table announced by the Ministry of Health every day, 2 million 821 thousand 943 people were infected with coronavirus in a year. 29 thousand 227 of our citizens lost their lives. With the developed PCR test, an average of 94 thousand 652 people were tested for coronavirus per day, while this figure reached 34 million 548 thousand 238 at the end of 1 year.
SCHOOLS CLOSED, DISTANCE EDUCATION STARTED
With the coronavirus, schools were closed as of March 16, and distance education was switched to. While the students received distance education for about 1 year, the students continued their education on EBA TVs prepared by the Ministry of National Education. While the schools were partially reopened with the Dynamic Inspection Period, it was decided to continue education until July 2.
LOSS OF LIFE 1 WEEK AFTER THE FIRST CASE
While Turkey continues to take measures quickly, on March 17, Minister Koca went in front of the cameras and announced that a patient died for the first time in Turkey due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Stating that the deceased was 89 years old, Minister Koca stated that he got the virus from a Chinese contact employee. In addition, Koca announced that the total number of patients that day was 98.
CORONAVIRUS VACCINES
In order to prevent the coronavirus pandemic, many countries, including Turkey, have started vaccination studies. In this context, Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines were developed in Germany, Sinovac in China, Sputnik V in Russia, Moderna and Johnson&Johnson vaccines in the USA, and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines in the UK.
The Sinovac vaccine developed in China was brought to Turkey on March 31, 2020. In the 3-month period, when 10.2 million doses of vaccine were brought to Turkey, the vaccination work of 2.5 million people was completed. When 320 million doses of vaccine were provided in the world, 70.5 million people were vaccinated.
CONTROLLED NORMALIZATION
After the decisions taken in the Presidential Cabinet, a controlled normalization period was started as of 4 March. In this context, while the dynamic inspection process started, 260 thousand personnel started inspections in 81 provinces. With the table showing the incidence rate in the provinces prepared by the Ministry of Health, businesses were opened in many provinces.
