Since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, Turkish authorities have been accused of hiding the real extent of the pandemic. In Amed alone, about 150 people are under intensive care and 20,000 are in quarantine.
Since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, Turkish authorities have been accused of hiding the real extent of the pandemic. According to official figures from Friday evening, 6,564 people have died of COVID-19 so far in Turkey, and the number of detected infections has risen to 276,555.
In the Kurdish metropolis of Amed, the number of sick people treated in hospitals has fluctuated between 700 and 750 in the last two weeks, according to Şiyar Güldiken, co-chair of the health union SES branch in Amed, told Mesopotamia News Agency (MA). Of the infected persons about 150 are in intensive care. Between ten and fifteen patients die every day. About 20,000 people are in domestic quarantine in Amed, according to Güldiken who says: "Of course not all 20,000 are infected with the coronavirus, some of them are in quarantine because there is one infected person in the same household. The number of people in Amed who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, have recovered, are still under treatment or are in quarantine exceeds 100,000".
The local union chair criticizes the assessment of the situation in Amed by the Ministry of Health as "stable": "The Ministry described the situation in Amed as stable. Yes, it is stable, but at a very high level. In the last two weeks, the number has fluctuated between 700 and 750, and on a single day, as many as 601 tests were positive. There are of course special reasons for this. For example, the number always increases four to five days after special social events such as weddings or bereavements.”
Healthcare workers in Amed are also particularly affected by the pandemic. More than 500 tests have turned out positive. However, Güldiken assumes that the number of unreported cases is much higher because the information is not made public in a timely manner: "For example, we only received the data on COVID-19 from the month of March the day before yesterday.”
The SES chairman points out that the daily statistics of the Turkish Ministry of Health show a large increase after the Gazi Yaşargil Hospital in Amed reported 15 deaths in a single day: "The Ministry has realized that it can no longer hide the truth. It cannot be concealed, because there were from the outset also reports of the medical association TTB and the professional associations of the SES. When such data are published, the Ministry gives the numbers a tick more highly than before, but also these numbers do not reflect the reality".
