Turkey to recruit 12,000 new health personnel
ANKARA
The Health Ministry will employ 12,000 new health personnel as part of the country’s measures to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic as the total number of COVID-19 patients in the country has surpassed 450,000.
The ministry is set to appoint 7,000 nurses, 1,700 midwives, and 2,864 health technicians in 14 different fields, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter on Nov. 24.
The appointments will be made following applicants’ online submission of their preferences for placements, without an interview process.
“The appointments will strengthen us in these difficult days of our struggle against the pandemic,” Koca said.
“Stay at home unless you absolutely have to go outside. The more you spend time at home the higher our strength to fight [the outbreak]. The best precaution to slow the spread [of the virus] is [to stay at] home,” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca warned on Twitter, urging people to avoid crowded places.
In a separate tweet, the minister asked the public to continue to support the efforts to bring the disease under control “until a vaccine is available.”
Koca earlier this week announced that Turkey has already signed a contract to buy a Chinese vaccine developed against COVID-19 and 10 million doses of the injection are already on their way to Turkey.
He also noted that the Chinese vaccine will be administered starting with health workers, and then people with chronic illnesses and from risk groups will be vaccinated, adding that the vaccine will be provided free of charge.
As part of a wide-ranging measures designed to slow the spread of the virus, the government imposed a partial weekend curfew from 8 p.m. to 10 a.m. local time. Shopping malls, markets, restaurants and cafes will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. throughout the week, with restaurants and cafes only providing delivery services.
Officials acknowledge that those curbs aim at preventing close contact between individuals.
“The number of cases in large cities, particularly in Istanbul, may stabilize this week and start to decline next week,” daily Hürriyet quoted Professor Kemalettin Aydın, an infectious diseases specialist, as saying.
He also suggested that the speed the virus spreads may slow starting December as social immunity takes effect.
Studies have shown that people under quarantine have largely violated isolation rules, the daily also reported.
Some 50 percent to 60 percent of those people are ignoring the rules, according to the studies.
As a way to avoid being tracked by the authorities, the quarantine violators leave their cellular phones at home when they venture outside even though they are required stay at home all time, the studies found.
Experts also underlined that the public’s mood has swung from “anxiety” to “acceptance” and warning must be issued to prevent this psychological state of people.