CHP spokesperson criticizes govt’s management of coronavirus outbreak

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Spokesperson Faik Öztrak on March 15 criticized the government for “not being able to manage” the outbreak in Turkey while noting the delayed vaccinations.

Speaking to reporters, Öztrak also criticized the government for being disorganized in the vaccination program.

“There are serious weaknesses in both pandemic management and vaccination,” he said.

Noting that the number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey exceeded 15,000, the CHP spokesperson said the number of daily tests started to decrease over the surge in numbers.

“The case test rate is over 10 percent. If 200,000 tests are done per day, the number of daily cases will exceed 20,000,” he stated.

“Things are not so bright in vaccination either,” he said, emphasizing that there were not enough jabs.

Turkey, including the first and second doses, can make a daily average of 182,000 vaccines, but the country needs to vaccinate at least 50 million of its citizens in order to gain social immunity, he said, noting that 100,000 doses of jabs were needed.

“If we continue at this speed in vaccination, 549 days are needed; that is 1.5 years. This means that we will not only lose 2021 but also 2022,” he said, warning that the situation would be much worse, especially if Turkey wants to give jabs to the vaccinated groups again before vaccinating the majority of the population.

Turkey must reach 100 million doses of vaccine soon and administer at least 500,000-600,000 jabs daily, he said.