ANKARA (Xinhua) – Turkish health authorities and experts have warned that Turkey might face another wave of COVID-19 infections within a few weeks due to the rising number of cases in Europe.
According to a report from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 15 European countries are witnessing increasing cases. It’s the first spike in coronavirus cases across the region since the latest BA.5 wave began.
The COVID-19 waves in Europe have often signaled future increases in Turkey.
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told reporters last week that the surges in Europe “usually affect Turkey within three to four weeks” and they anticipated that Turkey would have a similar increase in infections.
Vedat Bulut, secretary general of the Turkish Medical Association, said that in the past, most coronavirus subvariants in Turkey came from European port cities and this trend may repeat.
“A pandemic today spreads much faster than ever, as the ways of transportation are various and faster,” he told Xinhua.
The expert warned that as the pandemic has not been over, and combined with the seasonal flu, fatalities may increase in Turkey and other countries.
Erdinc Kara, a general practitioner in Turkey’s capital Ankara, said that more patients with COVID-related symptoms had come to seek treatment since the start of this week.
“People will be more indoors and that’s a risk of spreading coronavirus. People should be prepared for immunity-dodging variants which may fuel an autumn-winter wave,” he told Xinhua.
“Even if we have now efficient vaccines, the coronavirus is a resilient and serious threat to human health, and it is still causing deaths,” he added.
Nurdan Kokturk, a specialist in pulmonary diseases at Ankara’s Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, warned that if citizens fail to comply with established hygiene rules, “the winter season will be very harsh.”