Coronavirus is spreading fast in Turkey, warns health minister

Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has warned the nation that the novel coronavirus' spread is quite fast. "It is taking time for the cases to decrease," he wrote on Twitter. The minister's statements came as Turkey reported 1,172 new infections and 19 new fatalities from the virus.

Friday July 03 2020 09:14 pm

Duvar English

Turkey on July 3 registered 1,172 new infections and 19 new fatalities from the novel coronavirus. The nationwide cases reached 203,456 whereas the death toll from the virus rose to 5,186, according to the Health Ministry data.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on his Twitter that the virus' spread was “fast,” and it was taking time for the cases to decrease in the country.

"Average age of in-patients at hospitals in the last week is 46.7. Some 11.13 percent of those diagnosed in the last week are among those aged above 65. This group consitutes over 70 percent of the deceased,” Koca also wrote.

24 Haziranda 1.492 olan yeni vaka sayısı 1.172’ye indi. Virüsün yayılması hızlı; vakaların azalması zaman alıyor. Son 1 haftada hastanede tedavi görenlerin yaş ortalaması 46,7. Son 1 haftada tanı konanların %11,13'ü 65 yaş üstü. Vefat edenlerin %70'ten fazlası bu yaş grubundan. pic.twitter.com/0WOGpJzYwZ
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) July 3, 2020

The minister has been for weeks urging the nation to comply with the virus measures saying the claims that the virus had weakened do not reflect the truth.

At the start of June, Turkey opened restaurants and cafes, and lifted weekend stay-home orders and inter-city travel bans. A subsequent doubling of daily coronavirus cases prompted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to warn the country had lost some ground in its battle with coronavirus.

As Turks poured out into streets, parks, malls and vacation spots last month, Ankara made face masks compulsory in major provinces. More measures could come even as officials have said there is no plan to slow momentum in the economy, which emerged in June from a near standstill since mid-March.

The country allowed wedding halls, along with theaters, cinemas and internet cafes, to open again from July 1 as it wound down some of its last major coronavirus curbs.