In Turkey, the number of patients being treated for COVID-19 in hospital intensive care units is declining, an expert said, citing vaccination as the main reason for the improvement.
With fewer patients, ICU occupancy in hospitals has fallen to its lowest level since the start of the pandemic.
“Many hospitals are closing the intensive care units they originally set up specifically for coronavirus patients. For example, in our hospital there is only one COVID patient in intensive care,” said Oktay Demirkıran from Сerrahpaşa Medical University in Istanbul, who is also the head of the Turkish Intensive Care Society.
As the pressure from COVID-19 eases, Demirkıran said, beds in intensive care units are now available for patients requiring surgeries that had to be postponed due to the pandemic.
He praised the vaccination campaign “successfully coordinated” by the Ministry of Health.
“The number of COVID patients has dropped due to higher vaccination rates. This helps us a lot. Indeed, there are still infections, but they are unlikely to rise to a critical level,” Demirkıran said.
