Istanbul hospital sees spike in virus cases

ISTANBUL

The number of people visiting Istanbul University’s Çapa Medical School’s hospital for COVID-19 has increased lately, the dean of the medical school has said, adding that cases with severe pneumonia problems are also on the rise.

Istanbul, the country’s largest city by population, accounts for nearly half of all COVID-19 cases in Turkey.

“Coronavirus-related applications at the hospital have doubled and among those are people with severe pneumonia cases. The cases will only increase if the public ignores warnings. This is no joke,” Professor Tufan Tükek, the dean of Çapa Medical School, told Milliyet newspaper. 

He noted that a nationwide curfew was imposed during the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of May. “This was helpful. But this time there is no lockdown [during the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday]. On top of that, people have become more complacent,” Tükek said. 

He pointed out that the number of patients in intensive care units (ICU) are not declining, but even rising slightly. 

“Home visits and exchanging physical greetings may cause further complications. Let’s use phones to celebrate each other’s Eid holiday,” Tükek said, echoing other health experts’ warnings. 

“The number of new cases is on average of recent days. The gap between the number of recovered patients and the tally of new cases is close to that of yesterday,” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter on July 26.

“Since the number of patients treated in intensive care units, intubated and in the risky group is approximately the same, the number of patients having died is close to the ones in previous days,” he added.

The country’s Education Minister has reiterated that Turkey will go ahead with plans to reopen schools on Aug. 31.

“Schools will resume with all necessary precautions in place,” Ziya Selçuk wrote on Instagram.