Turkey sees peak point of COVID-19 outbreak: Minister 

ANKARA

Turkey is at the peak point of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on April 29. 

“I can say that we are at the peak period, but we are seeing a fall,” in the number of cases, he said at a press conference, adding that risk of a new wave is possible if the current measures are not followed. “But such a thing cannot happen with these measures.”

The government will to these measures throughout May, he noted.

“The issue of whether our adults over the age of 65 can go out in the sense of close distance without using a vehicle for a few hours has come to the agenda. We talked about it, but it is not certain [yet],” he said.  

“We are at a point in which the number of recovered patients has doubled the new COVID-19 cases,” said the minister. 

He said the method Turkey is following, which it calls “filiation,” has been a key factor in success, along with early treatment, adding that they followed 464,434 people as part of these measures.

Turkey took the outbreak under control by taking early measures and practicing three principles: Prevention, detection, and rapid treatment, he said. 

The bed occupancy rate in the hospitals has fallen from 60 percent to 30 percent, Koca said.

Some 7,428 health workers have been infected with the virus, 6.5 percent of overall cases, he stated.