Turkey's Health Minister urges public for precautions as the daily COVID-19 cases fail to drop

Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca warned that precautions of citizens against the novel virus should be ramped up in order to curb down the daily confirmed coronavirus cases in the country. Confirmed cases increased by 996 in the past 24 hours, and 19 more people have died, taking the death toll to 5,170.

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Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca warned that precautions of citizens against the novel virus should be ramped up in order to curb down the daily confirmed coronavirus cases in the country. Confirmed cases increased by 996 in the past 24 hours, and 19 more people have died, taking the death toll to 5,170.

On Aug. 1 Koca said 44,846 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests reaching 4,845,669.

The minister also added that while the rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients is 8,7 percent, the number of seriously ill patients is 586. 

According to the information provided by Koca, the number of cases is increasing in the capital Ankara, southeastern Mardin, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep provinces along with Central Anatolian province of Konya.

The Health Ministry has been under fire for removing the number of intensive care unit and intubated patients from the daily COVID-19 data it shares every night. Critics claim that the ministry’s move leads to suspicions that the coronavirus epidemic is getting worse in the country. 

“Pandemic data and information do not have to fit just one sheet shared on Twitter and web page [of the Health Ministry]. The addition of two new parameters in the sheet does not necessitate the removal of two others. The removed data are now hidden from the public. On the contrary, it is [normally] expected [of the authorities] to share more data,” said The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Chairman Sinan Adıyaman on July 30.

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