ANKARA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- It has been one year since Turkey announced the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the country on March 11, 2020. The pandemic has so far infected more than 2.8 million Turks and killed over 29,000 others.
Going all the way back to last March, the first reaction of the government to the outbreak of the pandemic was to ban international flights and close land borders with first Iran and then other neighboring countries.
Two days after the first coronavirus case was confirmed, about 10,330 citizens who returned from Umrah in Saudi Arabia were quarantined.
Schools were closed on March 16. Cafes, bars, restaurants, shopping malls, libraries and places of worship were also closed, and all public events cancelled.
Curfews and intercity transportation restrictions were imposed days later in parallel with quarantine measures.
When the pandemic figures saw a relative decline two and a half months later, the government decided to gradually ease the restrictions from June, mainly to support the businesses and the economic outlook of the country. Domestic flights were resumed, and public places such as restaurants and cafes reopened.
But the increased mobility in summer and social interaction during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha in late July triggered a new wave of mounting cases.
In September, engagement and wedding ceremonies were restricted across the country. In October, schools restarted distance learning. In November, Turkey was struggling with nearly 30,000 daily cases, forcing the government to introduce further restrictions. In December, Turkey reimposed evening and weekend lockdowns, with cafes and restaurants allowed only for takeaway.
Turkey rolled out its COVID-19 vaccination program in 2021. The first batch of China's Sinovac vaccine arrived in Turkey on Dec. 30, 2020. The country launched the vaccination with health workers on Jan. 14 after 14 days of testing on the vaccines.
About 10.5 million doses of the Chinese vaccine have been administered across Turkey. A total of 7.83 million have received the first jab, while 2.72 million have received both shots.
Turkey plans to vaccinate some 52.5 million of its population in the first stage.
"If we vaccinate 50 million of our population before autumn as planned, the pandemic will no longer be heavy pressure on us," Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday in a statement marking the first anniversary of the pandemic in the country.
"We have been negotiating with three different vaccine manufacturers for a total of 130 million doses of vaccine," Koca stated.
The minister also mentioned the five domestic vaccine studies which he said will soon begin human trials. "We will be using our vaccines soon," he said.
After almost one year with stringent measures, Turkey entered the announced Controlled Process of Normalization on March 1, yet against the background of another surge in the number of COVID-19 cases.
The new phase envisages province-based restrictions, where the 81 provinces are classified into four categories according to their COVID-19 risk situation assessed by infection rates and the vaccination process.
In low- and medium-risk provinces, weekend lockdowns are eased, while restaurants and cafes allowed to receive customers in limited hours.
However, with the reopening of businesses, Turkey witnessed a two-month high of about 14,000 daily coronavirus cases, after the daily increase had declined to 6,000 to 7,000 in late January and early February.
Turkey reported on Thursday 14,046 new COVID-19 cases, including 821 symptomatic patients, raising the total number in the country to 2,835,989, according to its health ministry.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 63 to 29,290 on Thursday, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,659,093 after 9,231 more recovered in the last 24 hours.
The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients stands at 3.8 percent, while the number of seriously ill patients is 1,310 in the country, said the ministry.
