President Ersin Tatar has renewed calls to the public to get vaccinated.

Tatar was speaking on Thursday during a visit to the emergency hospital where he was briefed on the situation of patients receiving treatment for Covid-19 by the Chief Physician Dr. Erol Uçaner and head of the Higher Committee for Infectious Diseases Prof. Dr. Deren Oygar.

The president said that it was important to encourage people to get vaccinated as this was the only way to end the pandemic.

Pointing out that he had exerted great efforts for the hospital to become operational during his term in office as Prime Minister, Tatar thanked doctors and the health care workers for their efforts carried out under difficult working conditions.

Also speaking Chief Physician Dr. Erol Uçaner said that there were 68 patients receiving treatment at the hospital with heavy symptoms, 21 of them in ICU.

Dr. Uçaner said that the majority of the patients were aged between 18-45.

For her part Dr. Oygar highlighted the need to speed up the vaccination process and to get 80 per cent of the population vaccinated.