Minister of Health, Dr. Fahrettin Koca, briefed the meeting held under the chairmanship of Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), on Turkey's fight againts COVID-19.
The Director General delivered an opening speech at the video conference, which is held weekly and broadcasted live. Pointing out that countries were slowly easing measures, Ghebreyesus noted that utmost attention must be paid.
In his presentation, Minister of Health, Dr. Fahrettin Koca, highlighted that there were engaging in cooperation with all global partners. Koca continued: "We have always underlined the need for a stronger WHO. Solidarity is our strongest weapon against this unprecedented threat. At this point, we must put aside disagreements and focus on the solution. After overcoming these challenging times, we must come together and see what went wrong."
With regard to the coronavirus situation in Turkey, Koca said:
"As of today, a total of 991.613 tests were performed. Yesterday, we performed 43.498 tests. I believe we have accumulated a great testing capacity. Thanks to early treatment protocols, we have been able to reduce the rate of progression into pneumonia from 60 to 12%. At the later stages of the treatment, we have took our time for intubation. Instead, we have received positive results by giving high-flow oxygen in prone position. We have achieved a significant increase in the rate of recovery for non-intubated patients. In parallel, the mortality rate for ICU patients have progressively reduced from 58 to 10%. Through this process, we have been able to reach 99% of all contacts, that is, approximately 455 thousand people in 44 hours."
Pointing out the importance of health information technologies, Koca continued:
"Thanks to the measures taken, Turkey has achieved peak level 30 days after the first death was reported. Turkey has been one of the countries where the virus entered the latest and has achieved peak level early. Turkey also has one of the lowest case fatality ratio among European countries. We intend to maintain these measures to continue this downward trend. We will not get complacent by low figures."
After the presentations, ministers posed questions to the WHO. Koca asked WHO whether they were preparing for a possible second wave. WHO will be replying the questions of member states in written.
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