Turkey listed at bottom of COVID-19 transparency ranking of 100 states

Turkey was ranked 97th among 100 countries in a ranking of states' data transparency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ankara failed to report asymptomatic cases throughout the pandemic, a move that completely discredited Ankara's figures.

Wednesday January 06 2021 10:53 am

Duvar English

Turkey came in last in a ranking of countries' data transparency performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, a study by United Kingdom-based TotalAnalysis revealed.

Turkey's Health Ministry admitted to concealing statistics from the public during the pandemic, possibly the reason why the country came in 97th among 100 countries in the ranking.

Serbia, Turkmenistan, and North Korea were the only countries that performed worse than Turkey according to the analysis.

"The one-man governance of the pandemic placed the country barely above North Korea," main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Çetin Osman Budak said.

Turkey's government only managed to surpass a dictatorship, North Korea, and two states that claim to have detected zero COVID-19 cases, Budak added.

Ankara's failure to report asymptomatic cases, a revelation that prompted nationwide outrage, cost the country its 2020 tourism season, the deputy noted.

"We had already failed to become a safe state per European Union standards because Ankara doesn't release provincial statistics," Budak added.

Budak urged Ankara to carry out efficient vaccine administrations to prevent putting the country's tourism industry through another summer season without business.

Ankara's labor statistics data has also been unreliable since economists predict real unemployment numbers to be twice the official figures.