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2.2 Corona in the palace...
On October 31, Erdogan’s spokesman and interior minister confirmed that they were receiving COVID-19 treatment. Later on, they returned back to their jobs.
The Turkish government does not release Turkey’s actual coronavirus figures as it doesn’t like reporting transparent figures in any field.
It recently banned health workers’ resignation, retirement and vacation rights.
After some opposition detective work partly exposed the wide difference between the official picture and the true extent of the coronavirus outbreak in the country, the health minister, possibly with a slip of the tongue, confirmed officials do not include asymptomatic cases in their daily virus bulletin (even though people with such cases can spread the virus).
And that confession came after the summer tourism season was over and done with. For many tourists, the damage was done. It’s a startling controversy (though mainly for outside observers, Turks are quite used to these goings-on), yet even now you see news agency reports relaying the official data with no mention of the uselessness of the figures confirmed by the minister’s admission.
As much as 90% of around 10,000 “imported” coronavirus (COVID-19) infections detected in Russia were contracted by people who had lately travelled to Turkey, Anna Popova, head of Russian healthcare and consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said.
Of 988 Israelis who returned from a trip to Turkey between October 1 and October 28, 197, or 20%, tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), according to data from the Israeli Health Ministry.
That meant Turkey took the unwanted top spot in terms of the infection rate found among Israeli travellers that ventured abroad. Bulgaria was second with a 13% infection rate, while third was the US with 6% and fourth was Greece with 3%.
Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, who has recently recovered from COVID-19, on November 14 called for a lockdown of at least two weeks to contain an “out of control” rise in COVID-19 cases.
“This job is not like it was in the March-April-May period [during the first wave]. The circle is getting narrower,” he said.
“Especially in the last week... there are at least 50 more deaths in Istanbul alone than the number reported in the whole of Turkey,” he added.
Earlier on November 14, Erdogan claimed Turkish hospitals were not overwhelmed for now but things could worsen if people did not follow rules such as wearing masks and social distancing.
A lockdown, as against a curfew, must be put into effect for at least three or four weeks to tackle the resurgent COVID-19 outbreak, head of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), Sebnem Korur-Fincanci, said on November 17.
Iyi Party leader Meral Aksener said also on November 17 that Turkey's coronavirus outbreak is out of control.
7 TURKEY Country Report December 2020 www.intellinews.com
