Minister of Health, Dr Fahrettin Koca delivered a press statement following the Regional Assessment Meeting covering the provinces of Diyarbakır, Mardin, Şanlıurfa, Batman, Siirt and Şırnak in Diyarbakır.
During his visit to Diyarbakır, Minister Koca first visited the governor of Diyarbakır Münir Karaloğlu to get information about the situation of the pandemic in the province and healthcare investments. In his statement, Koca noted that the course of the pandemic and healthcare investments in Diyarbakır were the two most important items of the agenda and added that they had the opportunity to exchange information.
"Turkey is one of the best countries in terms of contact tracing"
"While in some provinces the case numbers are going down or stabilize, the others show another picture" said Minister Koca and continued "Diyarbakır has been a province where the case numbers are on the rise. This has been the case not only in Diyarbakır but in the overall southeastern Anatolia region."
Emphasizing the continuous coordination with the governors, health directors, chief physicians and healthcare professionals in the region, Koca said "Thanks to rapid and effective intervention, we have been able to take the situation under control. The number of contact tracing teams has been increased from 200 to 385. I constantly stress that the earlier we can isolate contacts, the more successful we can be in containing the pandemic. Turkey is one of the best countries in terms of contact tracing. It is safe to say that compared to 3 weeks ago, the number of cases has decreased by 49%."
Minister Koca stated that they often stressed that normalization did not mean going back to way things were, and continued "The important thing here is to manage the situation and keep the number of severe cases and death at a minimum. However, our sociocultural structure, habits, traditions, social ties and responsibilities left us face to face with an uncontrolled social life. Unfortunately, there were occasions where social distancing and masks were nowhere to be seen. The reflections were imminent.
This was mostly the case in central Anatolia and southeastern Anatolia regions where family ties are the strongest and customs and traditions are much more committed to."
Pointing out that hospital plans had been reviewed, Minister Koca continued "Right now, the intensive care occupancy rate and ventilator occupancy rate in Batman are 79% and 44%, respectively. The intensive care occupancy rate and ventilator occupancy rate in Diyarbakır are 66% and 17.5%, respectively. The intensive care occupancy rate and ventilator occupancy rate in Mardin are 81% and 44%, respectively. The intensive care occupancy rate and ventilator occupancy rate in Siirt are 62% and 12%, respectively. The intensive care occupancy rate and ventilator occupancy rate in Şanlıurfa are 74% and 31%, respectively. And the intensive care occupancy rate and ventilator occupancy rate in Şırnak are 58% and 12%, respectively."
Bed occupancy rate in Turkey is 51%
"Bed occupancy rate in Turkey is 51%, intensive care occupancy rate is 68%, and ventilator occupancy rate is 31%. Our priority is to halt the increase in the number of new cases, otherwise the measures in place will no longer be enough" said Koca and stressed the importance of contact tracing in the fight against the pandemic.
The number of contact tracing teams increased
Saying that the number of contact tracing teams in Diyarbakır was increased from 118 to 385, Koca added that this number was going to be further increased to 450 in a couple of days.
Case numbers are down
Noting a decrease in the number of new cases, Koca continued "Recently, the new number of cases has dropped 34% in Şanlıurfa, 49% in Diyarbakır, 47% in Mardin, 56% in Batman, 37% in Siirt and 42% in Şırnak."
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