Citizens with high fever will not be allowed to ride subway in Istanbul

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has started to place thermal cameras at subway stations across the city in an attempt to detect passengers with high fever. Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu said that passengers with fever will not be allowed to ride the subway.

Duvar English

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has announced that it installed thermal cameras at three subway stations to screen for people with elevated body temperature, as fever is one of the main symptom of COVID-19.

Passengers who have high fever will not be allowed to use the subway, Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu said on April 4. The cameras have so far been placed at the subway stations of Yenikapı, Üsküdar and Kirazlı, but the implementation will be extended to cover all subway stations soon, İmamoğlu wrote on Twitter.

“Thermal cameras have been placed at our subway stations. Passengers with high fever are not accepted to the public transportation vehicles and are channeled to health institutions. After Yenikapı, Üsküdar and Kirazlı, thermal cameras will be placed at other stations in a short time,” İmamoğlu wrote.

Meanwhile, Murat Ongun, the spokesperson of the Istanbul Municipality, announced on April 3 that only those wearing masks will be allowed to use the city’s public transportation system.

“As of tomorrow, passengers who are not wearing masks will not be allowed to board on buses, subway trains, metrobuses and city line ferries. We have no doubt that Istanbulites will be sensitive regarding this issue,” Ongun wrote on Twitter.

Ongun's statement came after the government has made wearing mask mandatory in crowded public places, in public transport, grocery stores and workplaces to contain the virus.

Turkey imposes curfew for youth, makes mask usage obligatory in public placesTurkey imposes curfew for youth, makes mask usage obligatory in public places