Minister of Health, Dr. Fahrettin Koca, delivered a statement following the Coronavirus Scientific Committee meeting.
In speech, Koca underlined that 6 months had passed since the start of the pandemic in Turkey and a total of 7185 lives had been lost.
"Today, we are in a more difficult fight against the virus", said Koca and noted that the situation was escalating all over the world.
Koca pointed out that according to the World Health Organization (WHO) data, more than 29 million people were diagnosed with COVID-19 and nearly 1 million lives were lost and continued, "During the course of the pandemic, 41.637 people died in the UK, 35.624 in Italy, 30.950 in France, 29.848 in Spain, 9.927 in Belgium and 9.437 in Germany. The number of death in Turkey, compared to European countries, show the success of treatment in Turkey."
"Contact tracing performed on every positive case"
Koca said that the end of the tunnel of the pandemic was in sight and added, "Troubles appear mightier when there is no cure in sight. When cure appears, there is more tolerance and endurance. If we continue to fight this battle, wear a mask and practice social distancing, we will not experience the things the rest of the world has experiences. The power of states are being tested. We are strong and we must continue to stay strong."
Pointing out every positive case received the necessary healthcare, Koca said, "Contact tracing has been performed on every positive case. And it is still being performed. The number of our contact tracing teams, which are hunting the virus, was increased from 6000 to 11.000."
"The workload of healthcare workers quadrupled"
Koca noted that the contact tracing strategy increased the burden on healthcare and continued,"100 thousand tests are performed everyday and both carriers and positive cases are treated. The increasing number of severe cases has not prevented anyone from receiving treatment. Compared to the start, today, the workload of healthcare workers has quadrupled. The only support you can give them in this fight is to protect yourselves from the virus.”
"Measures are rules of health and morality"
"Unfortunately, not everyone gives the same attention to the pandemic", said Koca and continued, "Even though one does not care about himself, he is morally and conscientiously obliged to think of others. Measures are rules of health and morality. As of yesterday, the number of deaths is 7.186 and severe cases is 1327, which should be a warning for all of us. Every case and every death takes away from out morale and our happiness. Let us not allow the pandemic to weaken the society."
Minister Koca also mentioned vaccine development efforts and said, "Now, it is time to say the thing we wanted to say the most. As I have mentioned before, there is no pandemic in history that did not end. Scientific developments indicate that the end of this epidemic is near. The human mind will soon be able to declare its victory over the coronavirus. Progress about vaccine development is promising. The science world agrees that results will be achieved by the end of the year.
Right now, 9 vaccines are in phase 3. The UK, Germany and China have started application. In Turkey, we are working on vaccines on one hand and working on supplying the most promising ones on the other. Today, with the approval of the Ministry of Health, the Chinese vaccine Sinovac is being applied to 3 volunteer healthcare workers in Hacettepe University. This means that we may be going through the final months of the acute period of the pandemic."
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