Covid-19 daily cases in Turkey see an increase of 40 times

Duvar English

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on July 18 said that the daily Covid-19 cases in the country has recently seen an increase of 40 times, which increased the occupancy rate of hospitals by threefold.

Koca said that despite this picture, the government will not once again impose lockdown or similar measures.

Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Koca said: “We see increasing infection figures. But, the burden on the hospitals is not increasing at the same rate. The daily infection numbers have now increased up to 40 times [in recent days]. The burden on the hospitals on the other hand increased by 3 times. In that sense, we can say that we do not have a serious burden on our hospitals.”

Koca said that the current picture does not require an “atmosphere of panic” and that the country needs to learn “how to live together with the Covid.” “We all know when we need to wear a mask, where we need to protect ourselves. Lockdown or similar situations will not happen once again. We have vaccine, medicine, and we'll keep up with the precautions,” he said.

Turkey has been recently experiencing a spike in Covid-19 weekly cases as 117,095 more people tested positive between July 4-10, according to the Health Ministry data. This figure had stood at 57,113 for the week before, and 26,635 for the week prior to that.

In the face of this picture, the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) has been urging the government to take measures and take the issue more seriously.

At the beginning of summer, the government lifted all the restrictions previously put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Currently, mask-wearing is mandatory only at hospitals.