Nation thankful to health workers on Medicine Day as they fight to end pandemic

Turkey marked March 14 Medicine Day (Doctor's Day) this year with additional organizations and with scores of people posting messages, thanking all health workers for their courageous fight against the coronavirus pandemic for over a year.

In many provinces, special memorial services were held for the nearly 400 health workers who lost their lives during the COVID-19 fight.

One of them was at the Şehzadebaşı complex in the Fatih district of Istanbul, where the first medicine meeting took place 102 years ago, starting the tradition of marking March 14 Doctor's Day in Turkey. Cevdet Erdöl, the head of University of Health Sciences, thanked all those health workers who died, stressing that they all "should be considered martyrs."

From young to the elderly, people posted messages of gratitude to health workers on social media.

A website, dijitalmektup.lutfenplatformu.org, was launched for people who would like to write the medical staff messages of gratitude.

The first online letter was penned by the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Thanking them, Erdoğan started his letter, saying, "I express my gratitude to all health workers."

This health organization, which has rescued people risking their lives throughout history, has been in the first flight in the combat against the coronavirus pandemic, Erdoğan added.

"They have worked hard to recover people's health, sometimes by not going to their homes for weeks and hugging their beloveds," he said.

"The sacrifice you have shown has a big part in Turkey's coronavirus battle, which has been appreciated across the globe."

Wishing mercy upon those who died in the COVID-19 fight, Erdoğan said, vowing, "We will be supporting and standing by you."

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