Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Thursday that Turkey will begin requiring negative PCR test results from teachers and other school personnel who haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19 as schools reopen next month.
Speaking following a cabinet meeting, Erdoğan said teachers and other school personnel who hadn’t received a vaccine will be asked to submit a negative COVID-19 test result at least two times a week when schools reopen on Sept. 6.
The president stated that the PCR test requirement would also be imposed for unvaccinated academics and university students in addition to people who travel domestically and those who attend public entertainment.
Underlining that the majority of people who have recently been hospitalized were unvaccinated, Erdoğan once again called on all people to be vaccinated immediately.
Turkey has administered more than 87.5 million vaccines against COVID-19, mainly China’s Coronavac and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with 45.4 million people receiving one dose, some 34.6 million receiving two doses and 7.3 million receiving a third.
The country reported 19.320 new infections and 216 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours.