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1.19mn at end-2019. Newcomers prefer small cap speculative stocks and, as a result, the share of BIST-30 companies, in other words the top 30 blue chips, in the overall transaction volume declined to the 40%s from the 80%s a year ago.
2.7 Reopening
The Turkish Medics Association (TTB) accused the government of trying to sell Turkey’s battle against the coronavirus as a “success story” and were discussing when a second wave of infections might hit when it was not even possible to find any scientific basis for determining that they had overcome the first wave.
Turkey’s fight against the coronavirus has been winning some good foreign press recently, with various correspondents praising the effort as a relative success. But top Turkish medical association TTB is unimpressed with the government’s fast approach to easing the pandemic restrictions, saying the strategy is not backed by science and was premature.
As if to confirm that opinion, the June 12 official data showed the infection rate once more moving above 1,000 in a day. Some 1,195 new cases were identified, up from a last trough of 786 on June 2, with 15 people recorded as positive for COVID-19 dying in the last 24 hours. Daily infections stood above 5,000 on April 11.
Since June 1, Turkey has lifted weekend stay-home orders, ended curbs on intercity travel, restarted some international flights and re-opened cafes, restaurants, parks, beaches and gyms.
‘No proof’ Cavit Isik Yavuz, a member of the coronavirus research team at the TTB, said there was still no proof that Turkey has its outbreak under control. “At times, there is talk of when the second wave will hit, but we have not yet been able to overcome the first wave,” Yavuz told an online press conference. “The early re-opening decisions that are not based on scientific facts, especially since June 1, have caused a rise in case numbers and the number of patients receiving treatment in ICUs and needing respirators.”
On June 11, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said there had been a rise in daily cases in certain provinces, but said that this had stabilised.
“We are looking for a scientific basis for nearly all the measures that are being eased, but we cannot find any,” Yavuz added. “We find it odd that in a pandemic where we lost nearly 5,000 citizens, there is an effort to find a success story.”
Istanbul's Grand Bazaar on June 1 opened for the first time in more than two months as Turkey stepped up its easing of coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.
Major cities in Turkey were heading into reimposed weekend lockdowns before Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on June 5 abruptly announced a U-turn, cancelling the plans to avoid, he said, causing further damage to the economy.
Faced with an upsurge in coronavirus (COVID-19) infections, Turkey on June 17 made it compulsory for people to wear face masks when outside in the country’s largest cities of Istanbul and Ankara, as well as the northwestern city of Bursa.
13 TURKEY Country Report July 2020 www.intellinews.com
