Turkey has gone through difficult conditions in combating the Coronavirus in the last two months of 2020.
And in the past few days, it entered a situation in which officials ’anxiety about the peak period of Coronavirus has diminished somewhat.
However, global fears of a mutation in the Coronavirus have gripped Turkey, which has not yet started the vaccination process.
According to the latest statistics issued by the Turkish National Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, the current situation of the Covid-19 virus in the country is as follows:
- The total number of patients: 2 million and 50 thousand people.
- The total number of deaths from the Coronavirus: 18,351 people.
- Total number of cures: 1 million 835 thousand people.
- Total number of tests: 23 million.
- Hospital bed gross capacity ratio: 51%.
- The ability to perform the test around the clock: between 190 and 200 thousand.
According to these statistics, Turkey surpassed even Italy and France in terms of the total number of patients infected with Coronavirus.
The above table shows that Turkey ranks seventh in the world after the United States, India, Brazil, Russia, France and the United Kingdom. With a total of 2 million and 25 thousand injured, but in terms of death statistics with these countries, the gap is large.
Of course, the important point here is that in this small table, the schematic form of the path of the spread of the Coronavirus and its control in Turkey has a strange shape.
As it reaches its peak all of a sudden and starts to decline rapidly compared to other countries.
After the sudden increase in the number of coronavirus patients in Turkey, and the number of patients exceeded 35,000 overnight, Erdogan’s opposition parties’ media have challenged government policies.
“When the number of infected people in South Korea approaches 2,000 within 24 hours, the government is thinking of locking down the country and wants to take very strict measures,” wrote Yeniça newspaper, affiliated to the Good Party’s media service.
But in Turkey, when nearly 35,000 new cases were registered overnight, officials are quietly telling people: Nothing. “Put your teeth on the liver.”
Quarantine for British travelers
Most of the countries that flew directly to London became anxious after announcing the rapid spread of the Coronavirus in the United Kingdom.
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that within only six days, 4,607 travelers who arrived in Turkey by plane will be isolated in hotels and isolated accommodations and will remain in quarantine for a full two weeks.
The media in Britain told the world that the Coronavirus, which has now mutated and took a different form, will not be eliminated by vaccination.
But Professor Ugur Yen Shen, the German doctor and discoverer of the Coronavirus, who is a German citizen, told the media that the mutated Coronavirus was also examined and there is no need to worry.
Christmas restrictions in Turkey
In recent years, political and social divisions have also affected the issue of the start of the new year.
Conservatives and supporters of the ruling party generally believe that celebrating the New Year is not a good tradition for the Muslim community.
But the secularists, the left and a part of society that is not interested in the speech of the ruling party, trying to celebrate Christmas like European countries, and in this way, of course, tourism and billions of hotels and restaurants help in this.
For this reason, millions of Turkish citizens every year, depending on their financial means, book hotels to attend New Year’s celebrations, which include entrance fees, dinner and refreshments.
But this appears not to be the case this year.
This is because the Turkish Ministry of Health and the National Headquarters to Combat Coronavirus have called on the government and the Ministry of Interior not to allow hotels to hold Christmas Eve celebrations in any way.
A winning card called a test
One of the most important advantages of Turkey in the process of fighting the spread of the Coronavirus is to conduct high numbers of tests.
According to the official statistics of the Turkish National Health Ministry, 23 million tests have been conducted for Coronavirus in Turkey so far, and 2.5 million have been diagnosed.
In Iran, for example, 7 million and 97 thousand tests have been performed so far, which is equivalent to one third of the examinations that were conducted in Turkey.
And after the tests conducted in Iran, the total number of Covid 19 patients in the country reached one million and 165 thousand people.
Turkish government and debt challenge
Critics of Erdogan’s government believe that the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Trade have used the Coronavirus crisis as an excuse.
And they want to link all the country’s financial and economic problems with this issue.
But experts from different Turkish parties believe that the central bank’s lack of independence in monetary and financial policies and the bitter consequences of the wrong policies of former Finance Minister Albayrak (Erdogan’s son-in-law), have hit Turkey’s foreign exchange resources, which continues to suffer from difficult conditions.
However, the government does not currently have many resources to provide foreign exchange, and the debt burden has become heavier and heavier.
The large-scale outbreak of the Coronavirus has hit two very vital sectors in Turkey, tourism and trade.
Today, the Official newspapers studies, in a special economic report, the fact that most chambers of commerce and chambers of industry in various provinces of Turkey are seeking government support.
As many prominent activists in industry and commerce are on the verge of bankruptcy, they want the government to provide them with facilities, free of charge and at low profits, so that they can survive.
But the truth is, the government doesn’t have the money to pay it.
In the beginning, the foreign exchange resources of the Turkish Central Bank are very weak.
And the Turkish lira exchange rate shock, low tax revenues and the exorbitant costs of fighting Coronavirus put the government in a difficult position.
Most importantly, private and public borrowing.
As global banks created unprecedented amounts of debt and financial liabilities unprecedented in the Turkish economy.
As a result, victory over the Coronavirus, vaccinations and efforts to return to normal life have become a vital and political necessity for Turkey.
