Public complacency hinders fight against COVID-19
ISTANBUL
The public’s complacent behavior that intensified in recent weeks is one of the obstacles that hinder efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus, according to officials.
The other reason why Turkey has experienced a sharp rise in infections is the virus variants, which are spearing 30 percent faster among the populations, the officials noted.
Due to the combined effects of the complacency by people and the strains of COVID-19, the nationwide partial lockdown the government introduced two weeks ago has not yielded the desired results even though the daily number of virus cases has been on the decline over the past days, they said.
Some 30 percent of the public is not complying with the anti-virus measures and restrictions, according to the officials.
The data the Interior Ministry provides supports the increasing complacency among the public.
A total of 47,061 people violated the weeknight curfews and the weekend lockdown between April 19 and April 26, the ministry said on April 26, adding that legal and administrative actions were taken against those violators.
The past weekend, the government extended the lockdown to include the national holiday on April 23 to check the spread of the coronavirus.
The ministry data showed that the number of violators was on the rise despite the fact that the country has been experiencing a surge in infections.
Two weeks ago, 33,000 people violated the curfews and lockdown, up from 24,000 in the previous week.
The officials also noted that the virus cases have started to plateau since April 17, and the spread of the virus has relatively slowed over the past days.
The test positivity rates also inched down to around 16 percent from 20 percent, they added.
However, they reckoned that despite a mild improvement in the outbreak outlook, the fatalities from COVID-19 were expected to continue at high levels for some time, reflecting the effect of the sharp increase in the daily virus cases recorded in the past three weeks.