Turkey’s new coronavirus figures confirm experts’ worst fears
Whenturkey changed thewayit reports daily Covid-19 infections, it confirmed what medical groups and opposition parties have long suspected— that the country is faced with an alarming surge of cases that is fast exhausting the Turkish health system.
In an about-face, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Government last week resumed reporting all positive coronavirus tests— not just the number of patients being treated for symptoms— pushing the number of daily cases to above 30,000. With the newdata, the country jumped from being one of the least-affected countries in Europe to one of the worst-hit.
Thatcameas no surprise to the Turkish Medical Association, which has been warning for months that the Government’s previous figures were concealing the graveness of the spread and that the lack of transparency was contributing to the surge. The group maintains, however, that the ministry’s figures are still low compared with its estimate of at least 50,000new infections per day.
Nocountry can report exact numbers on the spread of the disease sincemanyasymptomatic cases go undetected, but the previouswayof countingmadeturkey look relatively well-off in international comparisons, with dailynew cases far below those reported in European countries including Italy, Britain and France.
That changed on Thursday as Turkey’s daily caseload almost quadrupled from 7400 to 28,300. The country’s hospitals are overstretched, medical staff are burned out and contract tracers, whowere once credited for keeping the outbreak under check, are struggling to track transmissions, Sebnemkorur Fincanci, whoheads the association, said.
Even though the health minister has put the ICU bed occupancy rate at 70 per cent, Ebru Kiraner, whoheads the Istanbul-based Intensive Care Nurses’ Association, says intensive care unit beds in Istanbul’s hospitals are almost full, with doctors scrambling to find roomfor critically ill patients. There is a shortage of nurses and the existing nursing staff are exhausted, she added.
Erdogan said, however, there was “no problem” concerning the hospitals’ capacities. Heblamed the surge on the public’s failure to wear masks, which is mandatory, and to abide by social distancing rules.
Demonstrating the seriousness of the outbreak, Turkey last month suspended leave for healthcare workers and banned resignations and early retirements during the pandemic. Similar bans were also put in place for three months in March.
The official daily Covid-19 deaths have also steadily risen to record numbers, reaching 13,373 on Sunday with 182 newdeaths, in a reversal of fortune for the country that had been praised for managing to keep fatalities low. But those record numbers remain disputed too.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said 186 people had died of infectious diseases in the city on November 22
— a day on which the Government announced 139 Covid-19 deaths for the whole country. The mayor also said around 450 burials are taking place daily in the city of 15 million compared with the average 180-200 recorded in November the previous year.
Last week, Erdogan announced a series of restrictions in a bid to contain the contagion without impacting the already weakened economy or business activity. Opposition parties denounced them as “half-baked”. He introduced curfews for the first time since June, but limited them to weekend evenings, closeddown restaurants and cafes except for takeout services and restricted the opening hours of malls, shops and hairdressers.
Both Fincanci and Kiraner said the measures don’t go far enough to contain transmissions.
“Weneed a total lockdown of at least twoweeks, if not fourweeks which science considers to be the most ideal amount,” Fincanci said.
Koca has said the number of seriously ill patients and fatalities is rising and somecities, including Istanbul and Izmir, are experiencing their “third peak”. Turkey would wait, however, for twoweeks to see the results of the weekend curfews and other restrictions before considering stricter lockdowns, he said. — AP