An important, but ignored, aspect regarding the global fight against the novel coronavirus has been international cooperation.
Following four-week intense legislation activities, the Turkish Parliament went on recess until early June. The most important amendment the Turkish lawmakers did was on the law on criminal sentence executions which paved the way for the release of more than 90,000 inmates from prisons.
This column over the weekend underlined the need for a recalibration of Turkey’s fight against COVID-19 both scientifically and methodologically, given a general observation of the implementation of measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
It’s been more than a month since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, which has already infected more than 1.7 million people and killed around 110,000 across the globe.
A month has passed since Turkey announced its first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus. Over the last two weeks, there’s been a surge in the number of cases to put the death toll at close to 1,000 out of more than 40,000 infected. Turkey ranks ninth in the number of cases, but its mortality rate trails that of many other countries.
Like the rest of the world, Turkey has engaged in an intense, multifaceted struggle against COVID-19 and its impacts on social and economic life. The command center of the medical fight against the coronavirus is the Science Board while the office of the presidency is administrating the efforts to keep the social and economic order intact.
Turkey is expected to activate the S-400 air defense systems from Russia in the coming weeks, more precisely until the end of April, according to statements issued by highest-level officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in the past months.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, who is leading a 25-member Science Board tasked with tackling the coronavirus, on the April 1 provided a detailed picture of the spread of the outbreak across the country for the first time since Turkey detected the first case on March 11.
A deal brokered on March 5 between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin brought about two important results in terms of de-escalation in the Idlib province of Syria: The cessation of military activities by the Turkish and Syrian armies and the establishment of a security corridor along the M4 highway.
