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that included “audio recordings in the summer of 2020, the Apartment Gate, the Guesthouse Gate, the Tanker Gate, the Rosenets seaside estate case or
the scandal around the alleged illegal transfer of money from the Development Bank, which taken together suggest deep and systemic weaknesses in rule of law and anti-corruption measures
in Bulgaria”.
“[LIBE] deeply regrets that the developments in Bulgaria have led to significant deterioration of respect for the principles of rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights, including
the independence of the judiciary,
separation of powers, the fight against corruption and freedom of the media and manifests its solidarity with the people of Bulgaria in their legitimate demands and aspirations for justice, transparency, accountability and democracy,” the resolution said.
It criticised the inhumane treatment of migrants and prisoners, as well as the hate against Roma minority and the systematic deficiencies of the Bulgarian judiciary.
The resolution was welcomed by the protesters who gathered for 85th day in a row, urging the government of Prime
Minister Boyko Borissov and Geshev
to resign, accusing them of corruption and involvement with controversial businessmen and politicians. Protesters thanked LIBE, hoping that the EU has finally paid attention to their anger and calls for help.
The resolution was adopted a day after the European Commission released
a very critical report on the lack of progress in fight against high-level corruption in Bulgaria, also expressing concerns regarding the pressure on media in the country as well as the slow progress in reforms to make the chief prosecutor accountable.
“cases,” which includes those who do not show symptoms, he argued.
“Not all cases are patients because there are those who show no symptoms at
all even though their tests come back positive. These create the vast majority,” he said.
The Health Ministry changed the wording of the data it shares on a
daily basis in July. As of July 29, the data showed the daily number of new “patients”, while prior to that it showed the daily number of new “cases”.
Koca also claimed his ministry did not have the kind of interface that Emir said the screenshot was from and that the document, which he said was undated, showed the wrong number of tests conducted on the day to which Emir claimed it referred.
“I want to say that all the information on the [coronavirus] table we give is correct,” Koca said.
Turkey, a country of 83mn that has
been experiencing a resurgence of the coronavirus in recent weeks, officially recorded 1,391 new COVID-19 cases on September 30 to make an overall total of 318,663. It also registered 65 more deaths from the virus, making an overall total of 8,195. Sceptics might argue you should multiply those figures by around 20 to get the true picture.
Accessed data shot shows Turkey’s Covid rate 19 times worse than officially presented says opposition MP
bne IntelIiNews
An opposition MP on September 30 claimed Turkey’s daily number of new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections is running at 19 times the figure presented by officials after gaining access to a screenshot of the Turkish health ministry’s official laboratory results portal, which is inaccessible to the public.
Murat Emir, a lawmaker of the main Republican People’s Party (CHP), said that the Laboratories Information Management System data showed that nationwide on September 10 there were 29,377 positive coronavirus test results, out of a total of 107,702 tests administered. Yet on that day, Turkey officially recorded just 1,512 new COVID-19 cases.
In a video broadcast by Fox Haber, Emir called on Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca to “tell our people the truth already”.
“The first rule of fighting a pandemic is to give correct information to our people,” Emir added in a tweet.
Several publications including bne IntelliNews have for months run reports of medics and local officials pointing out that when compared to coronavirus cases held for a single town or city, the national data appeared to present a massive under-estimation of the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in Turkey.
“Patients” versus “cases”
Following Emir’s revelation, Koca at his weekly news conference appeared to acknowledge that the government does not publish the full number of daily positive COVID-19 cases, but only cases in which the people concerned were symptomatic, Reuters reported. The number of daily new COVID-19 “patients,” which he defined as those who are symptomatic, was more important than the number of new
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