Minister of Health, Dr. Fahrettin Koca, delivered statements at the press conference held after the Coronavirus Scientific Committee Meeting.
Pointing out that the success in the fight against the coronavirus was achieved by 83 million people, Koca said, "We all know for sure that order, attention and discipline are a must in this fight. This fight must go on without interruption. If we do not make any compromises, we can get results fairly quickly."
Giving information about the global coronavirus situation using WHO figures, Koca continued, "As of yesterday's data, there are more than 3 million coronavirus patients globally. More than 218 thousand people died due to the virus."
"We achieved what we have achieved thanks to measures, compliance and rigorous work"
Noting that we needed to focus on how Turkey was able to contain the spread of the virus, Koca continued:
"The Ministry established an operation center on January 10 for a possible risk. On the same date, we established the Scientific Committee. That is 31 days before the WHO declared the disease a pandemic. We have always closely monitored what was going on in China and in other countries. We set up our road map and prepared our healthcare institutions for a possible pandemic. Measures that we took early on helped us to delay the entry of the virus in Turkey and buy some time. Other measures that we took gradually after March 11, when the first case was reported, yielded to positive outcomes.
I can safely say that Turkey has passed this test successfully. We achieved what we have achieved thanks to measures, compliance and rigorous work. We owe our success to three factors: Measures, detection and rapid treatment."
Koca continued:
"In a country of 83 million, instead carrying out widespread screening tests, we focused on suspected cases. It is better to focus on contacts of positive cases. We have increased our test capacity. We believe that this has been a more beneficial practice."
Pointing out that necessary capacities were increased in terms of intensive care and ventilators, Koca said: "We suspended all non-urgent operations and surgeries, and prepared our hospitals for a pandemic. We have lowered our bed occupancy rate from 60 to 30%. Having such a prepared healthcare infrastructure gave us the upper hand. While preventing transmission, we laid the foundation for treatment."
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