Turkey’s Coronavirus Cases Highest in Middle East

Date: 19 April 2020 - 21:28

News ID: ۷۷۶۳۱

ISTANBUL (Dispatches) – Turkey’s confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 82,329, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca says, to register the highest total in the Middle East.
An increase of 3,783 cases in the last 24 hours also pushed Turkey’s confirmed tally within a few hundred of China, where the novel coronavirus first emerged.
Koca said 121 more people have died, taking the death toll to 1,890. A total of 10,453 people have recovered from coronavirus so far, and the number of tests carried out over the past 24 hours came to 40,520, the minister said.
The Interior Ministry also said it was extending restrictions on travel between 31 cities for 15 more days that started at midnight on Saturday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday inspected the construction zones of two COVID-19 hospitals in Istanbul from the air by a helicopter.
Turkey has been building the hospitals for COVID-19 patients in the Ataturk Airport area on the European side of the city and the Sancaktepe district on the Asian side.
On April 6, Erdogan said that construction on both sites was expected to complete in 45 days.
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca also visited the construction areas and said that "we will make Istanbul ready for disasters on both sides.”
Koca said at a tweet that the "multipurpose hospital” in the Ataturk Airport area would constitute a strong health infrastructure for epidemic, earthquake and all kinds of disasters.
"Our hospital will have a total of 1,008 beds, which can be all converted into intensive care units,” he added.
For the hospital in Sancaktepe, Koca said it would provide full capacity service with its 1,008 beds when completed.
"Turkey will continue to make a difference in the world with its health care system,” he noted.