Need for ICU, ventilators rising, says Turkey’s health minister

ANKARA

The need for intensive care units (ICU) and ventilators are rising, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said after data showed that the number of new confirmed cases surpassed the number of recoveries in two days in a row.

“We are moving away from the target. Our weak point is unwary optimism. Let’s be prudent optimist,” the minister wrote on Twitter on June 14.

“Let’s shift fully to a controlled social life,” Koca urged people in his tweet.

The recent spike in the number of confirmed cases after the country removed a number of restrictive measures as part of its push for normalization plan alarmed experts.

Members of the Health Ministry’s Coronavirus Science Board, which advises the authorities on the outbreak, appear to agree that the public’s complacent behavior might have led to the rise in coronavirus cases, urging people to continue to adhere to basic rules of wearing face masks and observing social distancing.