Professor Tufan Tükek, the dean of Istanbul University's Faculty of Medicine, warned on Saturday that masks should be worn indoors "at least until April or May" as COVID-19 pandemic restrictions are eased in Turkey.

On Wednesday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca revealed that Turkey is scrapping the outdoor mask requirement as the COVID-19 pandemic eases thanks to the country's vaccination efforts.

"We are talking about a pandemic that has begun to diminish in intensity," Tükek said.

Underlining that mask-wearing should be adhered to, Tükek said that after May, the pandemic will further ease in Turkey.

"Maybe the PCR tests will not be done anymore and we will switch back to our normal life," he said, also warning that hygiene precautions and mask-wearing should be a priority until the pandemic is totally over.

Tükek also said that 80% of Turkey's total population has antibodies to fight off COVID-19, including individuals who caught the virus and recovered, plus the ever-growing number of vaccinated citizens.

The professor also underlined that education is a top priority for Turkey and should continue now that the number of cases has stabilized.

"The case numbers are dropping," he said.

"This trend will continue. I believe that people should still carry masks with them and use them intermittently," Tükek added, underlining that whenever inside and near someone in a high-risk group, masks should be properly worn.

Praising Turkey's health infrastructure, Tükek also said that results from the domestic vaccine Turkovac also offer hope.

Interim results of a study comparing Turkey's own COVID-19 vaccine Turkovac with CoronaVac, which was developed by China's Sinovac, were made public in January. The results show the local jab is 49.29% more successful in the prevention of infections among the vaccinated than CoronaVac. Both are inactive vaccines, and CoronaVac was the first to be offered to the Turkish public when the vaccination program began in January 2021.

Hacettepe University in the capital Ankara was running a study comparing the efficacy and safety of two doses of Turkovac with two doses of CoronaVac. Professor Serhat Ünal, a member of the Health Ministry's Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board and country coordinator for Phase 3 trials of Turkovac, joined professor Mine Durusu Tanrıöver, a scientist in charge of the study and board member of Hacettepe University Vaccine Institute, in announcing the results at a press conference in Ankara. The study began on June 22, and the results cover the analysis of findings up until Dec. 27, 2021.

Tanrıöver said the study encompassed different phases, including an assessment of the vaccines' efficacy verified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests conducted with 1,182 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55, with no history of COVID-19 and previous vaccinations. Some 73% of volunteers were male and 43% among all volunteers were people between the ages of 40 and 55, while 38% were between the ages of 30 and 39 and the rest were younger people.

Half of the volunteers were given two doses of CoronaVac and the other half were administered two doses of Turkovac, with a span of 28 days between the two doses. Interim results indicated that the coronavirus infection rate among people vaccinated with CoronaVac was 8.96%, while it was 4.55% for those who had been given Turkovac.

Turkovac could put an end to the apparent lethargy to get vaccinated among the Turkish public and reduce hesitation about the other two vaccines available. New shipments of the coronavirus jab developed by Turkish scientists were being delivered across Turkey last month, expanding the reach of the new vaccine that has been available in limited supply at city hospitals in past weeks.

Authorities expect Turkovac to be just the shot in the arm the lagging vaccination program needs. Although largely successful, the lack of a third or booster shots being administered, necessary since vaccines lose effectiveness over time, threatens to put the program in danger. Turkovac is available both as a first dose for the unvaccinated and as a booster shot for those vaccinated with other jabs, including CoronaVac, an inactive vaccine like Turkovac and the first to be offered against COVID-19 in Turkey.

Turkey launched studies to develop its first vaccine to combat the pandemic back in 2020 and under the coordination of the Health Ministry and scientific bodies, with researchers racing against time to develop jabs and drugs. Turkovac, which wrapped up its final trials last year and received emergency use approval in December, was the first local vaccine against COVID-19, developed by a team at Erciyes University. Last month, human trials were also launched for an adenovirus vaccine, which can be administered orally or nasally.

Mass vaccination helped cushion the impact of omicron, a fast-spreading variant responsible for the majority of cases, including those of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and first lady Emine Erdoğan who are experiencing mild infections. The country broke new records in daily cases in the past weeks due to omicron but hospitalizations remained low according to the Health Ministry.

Outlining the new measures at a press conference, Koca recently said that masks will no longer be mandatory indoors "if ventilation is adequate" but added that they are still crucial in certain environments, such as around immunocompromised people or those with diseases that can make a COVID-19 infection lethal.

Venues will no longer require people to scan their HES QR code on entry, Koca said, referring to the Hayat Eve Sığar (Life Fits Into Home) app developed by the Health Ministry that creates a QR code based on personal health records. "COVID-19 tests will not be required for those without symptoms," he added.

Koca also said that only 8% of people who tested positive for COVID-19 and died last month had no other diseases, adding that the "remaining 92% were diagnosed with other illnesses earlier."

The Health Ministry also released figures related to the weekly incidence of COVID-19 in Turkey's 81 provinces for the week between Feb. 12 and Feb. 18. The figures show a relative decline in cases per 100,000 people. Istanbul, the most populous city, reported just 617 cases per 100,000 while this number was around 1,216 for the capital Ankara and about 776 for the third-largest city Izmir.

Istanbul had 717 cases in the first week of February, while Ankara and Izmir had 1,323 and 1,017 cases, respectively.

Turkey was challenged by the omicron variant, which has contributed to a steep rise in the number of daily cases since January. After breaking daily records last month, the country appears to be easing into a new phase in the pandemic, with a decline in daily cases. On Sunday, daily cases dropped to around 69,000, a far cry from more than 111,000 in early February. A decline in the cases was expected due to the increasing vaccination rate and growing mass immunity. Experts predict that case numbers will further decrease later this month. The high numbers earlier were attributed to a midterm holiday break for schools that saw higher mobility between and within cities.