Lethality of COVID lower than flu: Expert

ISTANBUL

The lethality rate of COVID is lower than the flu as the virus has mutated and caused only a milder illness, a member of the Coronavirus Science board has said.

“If you are young, vaccinated or you do not have a chronic disease, there is no great risk anymore. Currently, the lethality rate of COVID is the same as the flu, even lower than it,” Tevfik Özlü explained, adding that the virus mutated and entered a loop like flu.

The number of COVID cases will increase at the end of the October and the beginning of November, peak in December and January and then gradually decrease like an ordinary flu, which has a seasonal cycle, Özlü stated.

“As COVID-19 is not the same as the disease in 2020 and 2021. The virus mutated and changed itself, causing a milder disease,” he explained.

Noting that the number of cases seriously increased in Europe, Özlü stated that they expected the same rise in Türkiye as the country always experienced the rise three or four weeks after the increases in Europe.

As COVID patients can easily recover, they do not need to immediately go to the hospitals when they have symptoms, as all people did in 2020 and 2021, Özlü noted.

“Therefore, people survive it, like an ordinary respiratory infection such as flu,” he added.

Underlining that the danger still remains for risk groups, Özlü noted that the people who are elderly, chronically ill, have a weak immune system and those who have not been vaccinated still experience severe infections.

“There are still a few hospitalizations from COVID-19. These people usually have cases that require intensive care,” Özlü stated, adding that there are still those who lost their lives among the patients in the risk group.

Özlü also pointed out that the start of the education period is an important factor that increases the risk of transmission of the virus in winter.

“There are approximately 26 million students in Türkiye. They meet five days a week. They can easily infect each other in classrooms,” he explained.

In addition to the opening of the schools, the increasing population in cities with the end of the vacation season also poses a risk, Özlü underlined.

“The service load on public transport has increased. People are closing doors and windows as the weather is getting cold. Ventilation is insufficient indoors, which makes it easier to get infected,” he warned.

Pointing out that the pandemic taught all people to take measures in time, Özlü noted that people in risk groups should not enter crowded, closed and poorly ventilated social spaces.