Turkey lost chance to be Singapore, should avoid becoming Italy: Professor on coronavirus

Prof. Alpay Azap, a member of Health Ministry’s Science Council, said that Turkey has lost its chance to be like Singapore and needs to spend its energy on not becoming like Italy. "Turkey has reached the critical case threshold of 100. Considering that we conduct a small amount of tests and that 20 percent of the patients come to hospitals and get diagnosed, we may very well have reached the critical threshold days ago," he said.

Duvar English

Turkey has lost its chance to be like Singapore and needs to spend its energy on not becoming like Italy, a member of Turkish Health Ministry’s Science Council has said, as he commented on the surge in coronavirus cases.

"Turkey has reached the critical case threshold of 100. Considering that we conduct a small amount of tests and that 20 percent of the patients come to hospitals and get diagnosed, we may very well have reached the critical threshold days ago," Prof. Alpay Azap said in a tweet on March 18.

"We have lost our chance to become Hong Kong and Singapore. We should spend all our energy towards not becoming Italy," he added.

Saying that Turkey has the health infrastructure and experienced healthcare workers, Azap voiced his hope that Turkey will overcome the virus with as little cases as possible with support from citizens.

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