There has been a significant drop in the number of swine flu cases in Turkey over the past few days, Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu said yesterday.

"The peak season of the flu is over. The number of [H1N1-swine flu] cases has dropped significantly in the past couple of days," Müezzinoğlu said, adding that the daily statistics were published on a weekly basis by the Public Health Institute, and that the latest figures should be released by Thursday.

The health minister had ruled out a swine flu epidemic in Turkey when he attended an editors' meeting at Anadolu Agency's headquarters in the capital Ankara last week. He also said that at least 33 people had died in Turkey because of swine flu since the beginning of the 2014-2015 flu season.

According to Müezzinoğlu, almost half of those people were over the age of 65 and were suffering from other diseases along with the deadly virus. Some 18 patients infected by H1N1 were between 25 and 55 years old.

A scientific committee under the Ministry of Health in early March had also ruled out a swine flu outbreak and predicted that the flu season would be over by the end of the month.

Authorities consider the period between October and April as flu season.