Sanliurfa does not stick out in its region regarding vaccination rates, but this southeastern Turkish province now has the unenviable title of Turkey’s least vaccinated place. The COVID-19 vaccination rate is still at 55% in Shanliurfa, while its neighbors Diyarbakır, Mardin, Gaziantep and Adıyaman already surpassed it, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.
Authorities view it only as natural that 96% of coronavirus patients in the province of more than 2 million are unvaccinated or have skipped at least one dose of the vaccine. The province is among nine out of 81 provinces of Turkey that have low inoculation rates. All are located in the country’s east or fall under the “orange” category in the Health Ministry’s color-coded vaccination map.
Vaccine hesitancy and outright opposition to vaccines are the only causes of low rates, something local authorities are trying to eradicate. The governorate and the local branch of the Health Ministry have mobilized to boost the vaccination rate. Apart from hospitals and neighborhood clinics, vaccines are offered in nine other venues while 44 health care teams visit remote, rural neighborhoods and houses of people refusing vaccines to convince them.
Professor Mehmet Gulum, head of the Directorate of Health in Shanliurfa, said all public sector workers and health care staff are sacrificing their time to boost the rate. Gulum said a fourth wave of the pandemic began in July, and they have seen a dramatic rise in the number of younger patients, which continues to this day. “This is the main feature of the new wave, that it affects young people more. (Unlike the previous waves), younger people die of the coronavirus or are admitted to the intensive care unit,” he said. He added that the rate of unvaccinated among patients was also the same, more or less, since July. “Based on our experience, we will see another wave either late November or in December. Currently, the pandemic’s burden on our health care is not as high to disrupt services, but this may be the quiet before the storm. The cases usually increase during winter, and provinces with low vaccination rates pay the price. We urge all citizens to complete their vaccination process so they can stave off a new wave,” he told on Thursday.
The country is already grappled with a rise in the daily cases tally, though it is relieved to keep the number between 20,000 and 30,000, while daily fatalities rarely drop below 200.