PodcastHDP deputy finds inconsistency between Istanbul's coronavirus death toll and number of buried
HDP deputy Zeynel Özen said that Istanbul registered more deaths than usual at this time of year and the excess is higher than the number confirmed to have died from the coronavirus. The deputy submitted a parliamentary question regarding this issue and asked Health Minister Fahrettin Koca to clarify this discrepancy.
Duvar English
A deputy of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has submitted a parliamentary question asking Health Minister Fahrettin Koca to clarify the inconsistency between Istanbul's death toll from the coronavirus outbreak and the number of burials.
HDP deputy Zeynel Özen said that Istanbul registered more deaths than usual at this time of year and the excess is higher than the number confirmed to have died from the coronavirus.
The deputy gave the death toll figures for Istanbul over the years of 2016-2020 during the period of March 16-April 3. He said this figure was 6,279 in 2016; 6,457 in 2017; 6,487 in 2018; 6,573 in 2019; and 7,791 in 2020.
He said that 1,218 more people than last year died in Istanbul during the period of March 16-April 3, but only 210 coronavirus deaths were registered in the city during those three weeks.
The deputy asked Minister Koca to clarify the reason of this increase in the death toll for the city. He said that such a discrepancy in the numbers was also seen in other cities.
He said there are reports that cases are being undercounted due to officials' definition of a “coronavirus death.” He said various reports suggest that officials count patients who tested only positive for the virus when they died, regardless of being treated as a coronavirus patient at the hospital.
Studies in the world indicate that the sensitivity of coronavirus tests stay at only 60-70 percent and this low sensitivity leads to many false negative test results. Medics therefore treat sick people whose clinical symptoms and CT scans are suggestive of Covid-19 as coronavirus patients even if their tests come back negative.
“There are allegations that even though a patient's CT scan and all other tests point out to coronavirus, if tests -- which have a very high level of error -- come back negative, other illnesses are reported on the death certificate, despite the patient going through a coroanvirus treatment,” Özen said.