The health system measures put into place in Turkey to contain the spread of COVID-19 are:
The Ministry of Health (MoH) launched a country-wide public awereness campaign against Covid-19 and set up a call center for consultations to check prelimanry symptoms of corona before referring to hospitals, It increased the number of certified test centers and rapid diagnostic kits to raise the daily test capacity above 10.000 and started to recruit 32,000 additional health staff. Masks produced in Turkey will not be exported and ventilators are subject to export control. In-patient visits in hospitals are suspended during working hours and are limited to only one visitor after business hours. A periodic follow-up program including social services and home healthcare is introduced for seniors over 80 years of age and living alone. Protective masks and colognes are being distributed to all persons above 65 in Istanbul and Ankara. Comprehensive health surveillance of seniors residing in public nursing homes (more than 400 nursing homes, 153 out of which are public) is ensured and a “Coronavirus Information Guide for Nursing Homes” was distributed to all nursing homes. Preventive measures are taken in women’s shelters and in nursing homes for children under state protection. Daily disinfection activites are ongoing in public spaces and transportation facilities. On 6 April, the construction of two specialised COVID-19 hospitals was announced in Istanbul (one of them in the facilties of the old airport), with 1000 beds each and a targeted completion period of 45 days. On 28 April, a 100 million USD 10-year loan agreement under World Bank’s COVID-19 Fast-Track Facility was finalised, to help finance the extension of the dedicated health infrastructure.
On 7 May, the previouly prohibited mask sales were re-authorised ,in standard packages of 50 unit and under a price cap.
On 5 May the Ministry of Health issued guidelines for local governments for the isolation and health monitoring of temporary agricultural worker settlements..
On 11 May the Ministry of Tourism published standards for tourism facilities for obtaining an optional “healthy tourism certificate”. These include procedures and physical facilities for monitoring and dealing with contagion cases.
As of early May, 5000 contact tracing teams (of 2 to 3 health workers) are in activity.
In addition to private enterprises, state-owned firms (notably MKE) are mobilised for the production of critical medical equipment and protections.
On 20 June the Ministry of Tourism launched an international information campaign on an extended version of the “healthy tourism certificate” introduced on 11 May (the new system provides a “coronavirus-free travel certificate” to eligible tourism facilities).
The published information can be found here
