The World Health Organization (WHO) said in an online press briefing in Geneva Thursday that they are cautiously optimistic about Turkey and that the number of COVID-19 cases is stabilizing.
WHO’s Senior Health Emergency Officer Catherine Smallwood told BBC Turkish that currently there are almost 100,000 cases in Turkey. “There was an approximately 47% increase in the last week,” she said adding that the rise in cases continues at a certain level.
“Yet Turkey’s number of cases began to decrease or stabilize thanks to the measures implemented at a very early stage,” Smallwood said in a quote translated to Turkish by BBC Turkish, stressing that they are cautiously optimistic about the cases in Turkey.
As of Wednesday Turkey has in total 98,674 confirmed coronavirus cases with a total of 2,376 deaths, according to Health Minister Fahrettin Koca. So far, a total of 16,477 patients have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the virus, with 1,559 discharged on Tuesday alone, the minister added.
WHO’s European Director Dr. Hans Kluge said during the press briefing that there is no fast way to normalization and that any measures should be taken gradually, pointing to countries that are partially lifting restrictions due to the decline of new confirmed virus cases. Complacency, BBC quotes Kluge as saying, would be “our biggest enemy.”
