Covid-19 cases and casualties have been increasing dramatically since the first case was recorded officially on the 11th of March in Turkey. The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) demanded that the new coronavirus cases be disclosed by the Ministry of Health's official website, by gender, age, and city, which have not been announced since the start of the outbreak.
Turkish Medical Association(TTB) issued a statement, claiming that the actual number of Covid-19 cases is much higher than the official diagnoses. Patients with symptoms in line with Covid-19 disease are dramatically higher than the patients who are tested for Covid-19, according to TTB.
The number of patients with symptoms that are coherent with Covid-19 symptoms under radiological and clinical results should be shared, TTB states.
NUMBERS ARE DECLARED ONLY VIA SOCIAL MEDIA
TTB criticizes that the only way to track Covid-19 cases is Health Minister’s twitter account as of now, and no data is available on governmental websites.
The irregular way of public communication was criticized by the Turkish doctors while comparing other countries' ways of communication of the Covid-19 outbreak.
TTB also reminded that the government should change the attitude concerning the measures against the spread of the pandemic and share the information with the principle of transparency.
NUMBER OF TESTS IS INSUFFICIENT
TTB also notes that the number of Covid-19 tests applied to the patients is insufficient. Compared to other countries with the same population, the tests administered in Turkey are ten times lower.
Therefore, Health Minister Koca’s Twitter statements are insufficient to explain the current pandemic in Turkey because of the insufficient number of tests applied according to the TTB.
Since the numbers of tests are not enough and patients with the same symptoms of Covid-19 are not included in the statistics, the government’s statements are not depicting the actual situation in Turkey and can only be the tip of the iceberg, the Association noted.
