Number of patients in critical condition on the rise: Minister

ANKARA

The rise in the number of coronavirus patients in critical condition is increasing, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has warned, urging the public to comply with measures against COVID-19 by reducing mobility and contact.

“Let’s mitigate the virulence of the virus by wearing masks,” Koca said on his Twitter account on Nov. 12.

Koca also informed the nation about the latest developments in vaccine works on Nov. 13 in a tweet.

“It is the sky I inhale, not the air,” Koca said in an apparent hopeful tweet, referring to a poem. “There is huge progress in works on the COVID-19 vaccine. Let’s wait for the results.”

Stressing the need to wear masks when outdoors or when meeting people, the minister also said, “Masks will be out of our lives soon. Thank you for your patience.”

The minister also said on Nov. 13 that he spoke with the Turkish-German scientists behind a coronavirus vaccine they have developed together with Pfizer and which they say is 90 percent effective. Koca said he spoke with Şahin over the phone.

Şahin along with his wife, Dr. Özlem Türeci, developed the vaccine against COVID-19 at their company BioNTech in Germany, which has drawn much attention in the science world, Koca added.

“We discussed this development. As the ministry, we were in contact during the process,” he said.

The pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which Şahin and Türeci, founded in 2008, developed an experimental vaccine together with its American partner Pfizer, saying it has been found to be more than 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19.

Both Şahin and Türeci were born to immigrant parents from Turkey who moved to Germany in the 1960s.