Turkey - Covid-19 Statistics, Information and News

First emerged in Wuhan city of China, then spread to Europe, and finally arrived in Turkey on March 11, 2020. Coronaviruses, namely Covid-19 continues to affect Turkey as well as the whole world. People around the world try to follow the suggestions as much as they can to protect themselves against coronavirus. How it all started in Turkey?

Coronavirus in Turkey: Nightmare Starts in March 2020

Turkey has a very close location to the world's transportation centers. Hundreds of international flights stop at Istanbul every day in general. Among these flights, Turkish Airlines, the airline that flies to the most countries in the world, comes first. In this sense, Istanbul served as a hub for aviation operations. Also each year about 40 million tourists were visiting Turkey from all over the world. It was not possible for Covid not to come to such a crowded place. In early 2020, while China was in Coronavirus chaos, Turkish government had the foresight that sooner or later the Covid-19 will come to Turkey. Working in this direction, at January 10, 2020, the 'Coronavirus Science Committee' was formed in order to combat coronaviruses pandemic by the Ministry of Health in Turkey. So what did this committee do? After that date, measures started to be taken by examining the data in the world and monitoring the spread. However, despite all the measures taken, cases of coronavirus first began to emerge in Turkey in mid-March. After March 11, the official coronavirus cases began in Turkey. So what's the case for Turkey coronavirus outbreak? As of 22 April, Turkey ranks 6th in the world in terms of the number of cases. This is a high figure considering that the first incident occurred in mid-March. So what's the reason for this?

The Reason of High Coronavirus Rate in Turkey

In fact, the main reason is the Turkey's working population. About 1 in 3 in Turkey wake up in the morning to go work every day(Click here to see detailed report about Turkey's working class). For this reason, although many measures are taken, such as masks and disinfectants, it is not possible to prevent the spread of the epidemic while people are working. Many measures were taken such as closing of the barbers and shortening the working hours of the markets; however, it was obvious that these were not sufficient to stop this. This issue is actually to 'select the best of the worsts' story for Turkey. It does not seem possible to make a general curfew to prevent the economy, which has not been doing very well lately, from getting worse. However, the government has to slow down the pandemic. Therefore, starting from mid April, in the largest 31 cities in Turkey, curfew started on weekends. Also, in April, 65+ citizens, the most affected by the pandemic, were banned from going out onto the streets. Schools were vacationed to reduce the pace of the outbreak. In addition to this, those under the age of 18 were also banned from going out to the street.

War with Coronavirus: Turkey's Coronavirus Report

So is everything about Coronavirus going bad in Turkey? Of course not. Turkey's biggest trump card in hand, well-functioning health system and brave health care workers. Although the number of cases in Turkey as a very high, death toll in the state is very low compared to other countries. What is the reason for this? The views of a specialist doctor in the Turkish health system are as follows: 'Our recovery numbers are very good. Of course, I attribute this to the fact that our health system is good. We have one of the best in Europe, in terms of both physicians and healthcare professionals, and our healthcare and healthcare system, and so we have many improvements. And of course, with the decisions taken by our Ministry of Health's Science Committee, we started to see the cases 2 months late and this was an experience and we were caught more prepared.'
One of the advantages of Turkey is well-developed industry in this regard. It is predicted that the need for ventilators will increase in the coming period. In the industry, a state of emergency was declared and in a very short time a ventilator device is designed and produced. In May, it was informed that Turkish Industry Giant, Arcelik, would produce 5000 vital ventilators with the support of many other companies from various sectors including defense companies.
So when the epidemic is expected to decrease in Turkey? About the coronavirus, experts said Turkey could go to normalization after the Eid al-Fitr(end of May); but they said that it should be step by step. President Erdogan also announced that they plan to gradually return to normal life after the Eid al-Fitr.

Are the Case Number of Measurements in Turkey Reliable?

Due to very late start of the formal cases in Turkey compared to other countries, reliability of Covid-19 case and death measurements performed frequently been questioned in Turkey till the start of 2020. As in the rest of the world, the Covid-19 numbers announced by government were questioned to be unreliable in Turkey. So are Covid-19 case and death numbers in Turkey reliable?
Opposition parties and some trade associations in Turkey argue that the real coronavirus numbers (both cases and deaths) are over than the numbers declared by the government. For the Covid-19 death number in Turkey, the biggest basis for this claim is the increase on annual death rates of Istanbul. At the end of March, although several casualties were announced daily, Istanbul's overall deaths were on average 80-100 over the past years. This was used by opposition parties to strengthen their claims that the declared Covid-19 death numbers were not showing the truth. So what does the government say about this? The Minister of Health, with his statements every day, informs that daily cases are cases collected from hospitals and official figures should be trusted. All official numbers being collected from hospitals and relatively good working health care system in Turkey might justify Health Minister's speech. So how should we explain the unexplained statistics? This unexpected increase in mortality in Istanbul at the end of March should be explored by scientists. However, the available data on this issue gives the idea that Turkey be reliable official data. If data are not true, with the world's 18. largest population, Turkey would not be expected to be in the top 10 ranking of Covid-19.
So how is the information from the field on Covid-19 in Turkey? In the age of communication, a lie is unlikely to remain on the agenda for more than a few hours. Many physicians broadcast on Twitter that coronavirus in Turkey is a serious problem, but also gives information that the numbers declared are to be true. It is also among the news that there is no density in many intensive care units.

The Turkish People's Perspective on Coronavirus

Turkey's relations with the coronavirus began with the first of March. Previously, tens of thousands of people were traveling abroad daily. Of course, these trips caused the virus to spread very rapidly in the country in March 2020. Especially tens of thousands of pilgrims who go to Hajj for worship purposes are returned from Saudi Arabia to the country and scattered all over the country till March. At the beginning of March, the state increased the measures in this regard and quarantined all citizens coming from pilgrimage in student dormitories for 14 days. This practice also gave successful results to prevent the spread of the virus. The Turkish people, like in many other countries, have started to comply more with the rules set by the state about coronavirus since the deaths begin, although they did not care much about the virus before deaths. After the deaths exceeding 2000 people as of the end of April, Turkish people are aware of the severity of the virus. You can see many people with masks on the street(see below for more mask issue). Cologne is used instead of disinfectants in all the houses in Turkey. This was actually a tradition that had been going on in Turkish homes for hundreds of years before the virus. This chemical, which contains high levels of alcohol, is widely used as a disinfectant for hand and face cleaning in Turkey. Due to its high alcohol content, cologne is also very effective for coronavirus cleaning. The fact that people started stocking cologne due to the coronavirus epidemic caused the cologne prices to double. Moreover, many national cologne brands have difficulties to produce products to the market.

Dilemma - Not Being Able to Find Mask at the Mask Production Base

Turkey is a country with very advanced production facilities. After the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health announcements(Click here to reach World Healt Organization Mask Advice) about wearing the mask, intensive mask production started in Turkey. Of course, like every product, where the demand has increased so rapidly, mask prices have doubled in an instant. The state banned the sale of masks to prevent black money; As of mid-April, it was announced that the state would provide a free mask. However, this decision, which was taken to prevent black money, brought along problems. Citizens who could not get a mask suddenly started to wait for the masks that the government would give. Finally, the major cities in the practice of getting free masks in pharmacies began using the ID number of the Republic of Turkey. It is planned to increase the number of masks given each 5 times over time.

Conclusion: The War With The Coronavirus Continues

Turkey's war with the coronavirus continues. On this page, you can find current news, numbers, statistics and graphics about Coronavirus in Turkey.

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