The Minister of Health, Dr. Fahrettin Koca, delivered a statement with regard to the new developments on coronavirus response following the Scientific Committee meeting held at the Bilkent campus of the Ministry of Health.
Noting that Turkey showed an unparalleled solidarity against the coronavirus, Koca added that they were being meticulous about rapid testing and isolation and treatment of diagnosed patients.
"We are adding 32 thousand personnel to our existing staff"
Commenting on number of staff, Koca said:
"We are adding 32 thousand personnel to our existing staff. The recruitment will take place within the next 1 to 2 weeks. We will not let transfers from universities to the ministry of health. We will also not hire the ones who quit from private sector. We are aware that the healthcare personnel are working tirelessly.
Within this period, we are working on improving the bonuses of the healthcare personnel."
"50 thousand rapid diagnostic kits are in operation"
Touching upon rapid diagnosis efforts, the Minister said: "50 thousand rapid diagnostic kit units arrived this morning and are in operation. On Thursday, we will receive 300 thousand more units and we will have a total of 1 million units."
Mentioning mask supplies, Koca continued: "Masks produced in Turkey will not be exported when Turkey needs them."
"There are many recovered cases"
"I would like to underline that there are many recovered cases", said Koca and added that a drug, which is claimed to yield positive results, had arrived from China and was being used on people treated in intensive care.
Koca also provided information about the ones who lost their lives:
"The ones who died are elderly cases with chronic diseases. In the upcoming days, we will share more detailed information on all cases, including their age range. The age of the ones who died is up to 90, two of them are between the age of 50 to 60, other then that, all of them are over 61."
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