Last week, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told reporters that in general, the waves of the pandemic in Europe will hit Turkey “in three to four weeks”, assuming that the cases will multiply in his country as well.
Turkish health authorities and experts are warning that the country will face a new wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic soon, due to the increase in SARS-CoV-2 cases in Europe.
According to data from the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 countries in Europe are recording an increase in infections. This is the first widespread outbreak since the latest wave, attributed to Omicron’s BA.5 subvariant.
The waves of the pandemic in Europe are generally considered a precursor to similar events in Turkey.
Last week, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told reporters that in general, the waves of the pandemic in Europe will hit Turkey “in three to four weeks”, assuming that the cases will multiply in his country as well.
Vedat Bulut, secretary general of the medical association of Turkey, for his part pointed out that most variants and sub-variants of the virus reach the country from European ports and predicted that the trend will repeat itself.
Any pandemic “spreads faster today than ever before, as transport is different and faster,” he observed. He stressed that the current pandemic is not over and that combined with the seasonal flu, deaths are at risk of increasing in Turkey, as in other countries.
Erdincs Kara, a doctor at a hospital in Ankara, noted for his part that admissions of patients with COVID-19 have been increasing since the beginning of the week, as people spend more time indoors and this implies a higher risk of infection. “The world needs to prepare for vaccine-resistant variants that may trigger a fall and winter surge.”
“Although we have more effective vaccines now, the virus remains resistant and a serious threat to human health — and it continues to kill,” he added.
Nurdan Kokturk, a lung disease specialist at Ankara University’s medical school, warned that “a difficult winter is ahead” if citizens do not take protective measures, especially as schools are operating normally.
As of March 2020, Turkey officially counts over 101,000 deaths due to COVID-19 out of a total of 16.8 million laboratory-confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2.
RES-EMP
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