Professor says there may be a very large increase in cases in December-January

Prof. Dr. Zafer Kurugol pointed out that the corona virus variant which the World Health Organization calls Omicron, is more contagious and said, “The epidemic is ongoing, there is a very high probability that a new wave will come to our country. We may see a very large increase in December and January.

Due to Omicron which is described as a ’super variant’, some countries, including Turkey, have begun to tighten their measures.

Prof. Dr. Zafer Kurugol, Head of the Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Faculty of Medicine (Ege University) spoke to DHA about the ‘most mutated variant’ detected so far in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kurugol said that the new variant was a concern because it was likely to be more resistant to vaccines, antibodies and drugs such as ‘Beta’, which previously came out of South Africa, and also escaped the immune system.

Noting that the measures that needed to be taken were not very different from the others, Kurugol said: “The weapons we have are obvious. The first is vaccination, the others are masks, distance and hand cleaning. Recently, unfortunately, we pay less attention to the use of masks. We have to give it more importance. We need to be vaccinated, follow the rules. There is an impression, the epidemic in our country is finished. However, the epidemic continues, we lose more than 200 lives every day. If we do not take new measures, there is a very high probability that a new wave will come to our country. December January may show a very large increase. Entries to our country from South Africa and some countries have been banned. This is very correct. In addition, those who have arrived from these countries within the last two weeks must be identified and tested and quarantined.”