COVID-19 pandemic 'out of control in Turkey'

The COVID-19 pandemic is out of control in Turkey, as the number of daily diagnoses has surpassed the number of patients who successfully completed treatment for a few days, infections expert Prof. Mehmet Ceyhan said on Aug. 26. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry has implemented additional precautions such as limiting wedding ceremonies' length.

Thursday August 27 2020 12:41 pm

Duvar English

The COVID-19 pandemic is out of control in Turkey, given the number of patients that complete treatment daily compared to those who are diagnosed, Prof. Mehmet Ceyhan said on Aug. 26.

"The number of patients getting diagnosed each day has been higher than patients who recover daily for the past 10 days. That says that we've lost control," Ceyhan said.

"Whenever the number of patients who recover daily is higher than that of those who are getting diagnosed, and the numbers continue to get better, is when we'll be able to say things are back under control."

The professor also noted that the actual number of COVID-19 patients is much higher than the official figures, as there's bound to be infected persons who haven't been tested.

"The real numbers are ten times the official ones," Ceyhan said.

Official numbers in Turkey spiked from 996 daily diagnoses on Aug. 1, to 1,501 on Aug. 25, prompting the Interior Ministry to implement precautions once more, after starting "normalization" on June 1.

The Interior Ministry banned all meals at weddings, adding that "absolutely no dancing will be allowed" either.

The Aegean province of İzmir placed a limit of 2,5 hours on weddings, while Ankara limited wedding ceremonies to one hour and banned celebrations for circumcisions, henna nights and engagements.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Aug. 26 that the ministry "had to implement special precautions" in some cities as the country observed 20 COVID-19 patients deaths.

'Someone dies every hour'

Daily Hürriyet columnist Sedat Ergin noted in an Aug. 27 piece that someone is dying in Turkey every hour.

"The other day, 24 citizens died. Each hour that passes, someone is dying. Do we realize that?" Ergin said.

The number of patients in intensive care is a good measure for gauging the severity of the pandemic, Ergin said, adding that this number has spiked by 50 percent in the past month.

Another measure to understand how Turkey's coping with the pandemic is the difference between the number of daily diagnoses and the number of patients who recovered on that day.

"Unless the situation is taken under control, we're heading to a place where the number of daily diagnoses will be a multitude of the number of daily recovered patients," Ergin added.