Page 44 - On-birleştirildi

Türkiye’s Fight Against COVID-19 Pandemic

4. Measures Taken Before the Virus’s Entry into Türkiye

The novel Coronavirus spreading from China to the whole world
has been closely followed up and taken very seriously in Türkiye since the
beginning. Although the World Health Organization stated that it was still
early to declare that the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of
International Concern, Türkiye had completed all the preparations, particularly
for the airports. The Scientific Board of the Ministry of Health had convened
to make a risk assessment on 22 January 2020. And in the light of the
recommendations of the Board, various measures had been taken to prevent
the virus’s entry into the country.

First of all, for all inbound flights, particularly from China, infectious
diseases control measures were promptly implemented. Furthermore,
healthcare professionals were assigned round-the-clock to stand ready at ports
and airports, thermal cameras were installed to scan the passengers at the
arrival, and the quarantine rooms as well as negative pressure stretchers were
put into service to be utilized when necessary. The A400M type cargo plane
belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces were turned into ambulance plane
and carried 42 persons including 32 Turkish citizens, 6 Azerbaijani citizens,
3 Georgian citizens and one Albanian citizen from Wuhan to Türkiye on 02
February 2020. All people aboard including 62 persons with the technical
staff and the health care professionals were transferred by 17 ambulances to
Dr. Zekai Tahir Burak Hospital and put into quarantine for 14 days. After
the quarantine period, those people were tested negative. With this example,
Türkiye has been the first country to have brought its citizens to Türkiye by an
ambulance plane accompanied by a scientific team and healthcare professionals
and to have arranged a quarantine hospital.

WHO declared that the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of
International Concern on 04 February 2020. Right after that, on 05 February
2020, all the flights with China were stopped. As of 07 February 2020, in line
with the Recommendation of the Scientific Board, the international inbound
passengers were scanned by thermal cameras at the entire international airports
in the country. The domestic testing kits which yield rapid result for coronavirus
disease were introduced to the public and have been used since 17 February
2020. On 19 February 2020, two members of the Scientific Board for coronavirus

43