Alper Şener

Against the backdrop of dog attack incidents, experts have raised concerns over the growing stray animal population in Türkiye, suggesting that it could equal the country's human population by 2030.

Heading into fall, an expert is guardedly optimistic that the spread of COVID-19 this autumn and winter won't have a devastating effect in Türkiye.

Warning that there may be minor climbs in COVID-19 cases as the new school year kicked off, professor Alper Şener, an infectious diseases expert, doesn't expect this to turn into a new wave.

The next three months will be crucial for efforts to confront challenges from the Omicron strain of COVID-19, a health expert has said, calling for speeding up the drive to give booster shoots.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca last week announced the first cases of the Omicron variant in Turkey.

Turkey may still have time to prepare for the Omicron strain of COVID-19 by speeding up the jab drive, but vaccine complacency among the population continues to pose risks, Professor Alper Şener from the Heath Ministry's Science Board has said.

A little more than 80 percent of people aged 18 and above have been given two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Turkey, but some provinces are still lagging behind in the jab drive, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said.

Nearly 50 million adults in the country have been double jabbed since the country started vaccinating people against the coronavirus in January.

Turkey's Science Board is not weighing closing schools as an option, the country's health minister has said, in response to a recent comment by a member of the board who suggested that in-class education may be suspended if virus cases increase.

Stricter measures against COVID-19 are not currently being considered but they could be on the cards again if the daily infections spike, an expert has said.