Health Minister Fahrettin Koca urged the public not to be disheartened as daily coronavirus cases climbed in the country, assuring that though numbers may be high, the virus has lost its strength and the “worst days are over.”
His remarks preceded Saturday’s announcement by the Health Ministry that put the number of daily cases at 94,783, the highest figure since the virus made its foray into the country. However, fatalities were strikingly low compared to the high case count, standing at just 174 on Saturday, whereas in April and May of 2021 the daily fatalities were shy of 400 for weeks, though case numbers fluctuated between 30,000 and just above 60,000.
Speaking in the northern province of Giresun where he attended the opening of a hospital, Koca said the public should “rest assured that the worst days are behind us … As your health minister, I repeat this loudly: You should not be worried about the rising number of cases,” he underlined, adding that “the disease lost the strength it had back in the old days.”
The minister noted that Turkey was highly prepared before the world declared a global pandemic and set up its scientific advisory board and established its guidelines to fight the outbreak. “We acted swiftly and implemented measures. When our vaccination program began, we provided fast inoculation to our citizens and vaccinated the majority of our citizens in a short time,” Koca said.
Turkey has administered more than 141 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since January 2021 while the number of people who have received two doses of vaccine exceeds 52 million and over 24.8 million have received three doses.
The minister highlighted that the current COVID-19 situation resembled the spread of the winter flu. “If we had released the number of people we lost to influenza daily, you would see it was no different than COVID-19,” he said.
