During his speech, Koca noted that no one could say anything certainly about the stages of a pandemic and added, "Some results indicate that Turkey will overcome this outbreak with minimum loss. If everyone can stick to measures to the full extent, then I will be able to say something more than 'I hope'. Please follow the instructions more strictly and focus on the outcome.""No other country performs the filiation method like we do"Pointing out that the number of cases were increasing worldwide, Koca mentioned that each country was waging its own battle against this pandemic. Noting that data and number of cases were debated in many countries, Koca continued: "The disease peaked in the US in week 11, in Spain in week 9, in Italy in week 8, in Germany and France in week 10, and in China in week 7. Turkey peaked in week 4. This means that as of week 4, the growth rate of cases is decreasing." Reminding how fast the virus was spreading, Koca continued: "Right now, we almost have the spread of virus under control. You have heard the concept of filiation many times. Filiation is the screening of the chain of contact in case of an infectious disease. Thanks to filiation, we were able to reduce the case growth rate. No other country performed the filiation method as we did." Adding that this performance was reflected onto the data, Koca said: "We have identified 261.989 contacts so far. We were able to reach 95.8% of these contacts. 251.028 people are being monitored by our filiation teams. There are 4.5 contacts per confirmed case. Almost 96% of these contacts were reached and monitored." Koca delivered updated data on the current situation of coronavirus in Turkey: "The number of tests today has reached 33.070. We surpassed our goal of 30 thousand tests this week. Within the last 24 hours, 4.062 new positive cases have been confirmed. This makes the total number of cases 65.111. With 107 people today, the total number of deaths increased to 1403. And 842 patients recovered.""We Support All Units Working On a Vaccine" Discussing vaccine development efforts, Koca said: "Our colleagues at the Scientific Committee do not expect a vaccine to be developed within the upcoming 4 to 6 months. Turkey also has been working a lot on this issue. As the Ministry of Health, we are supporting all units working on the vaccine, including TUBITAK and universities. Three centers have isolated the virus and efforts will accelerate from now on.""We procured the drug before the first case" Koca pointed out that Turkey procured the drug, which is used to treat the coronavirus, before the first case was detected, administered this drug to patients free-of-charge and used it widely. Koca also emphasized that the whole world was after this drug, 1 million boxes of which were in stock in Turkey, and that no other country was using this drug as widely as Turkey.
© 2025 Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Health All rights reserved.
