Istanbul is considered the hotspot of the Corona pandemic in Turkey. The number of deaths and infections is rising rapidly and there are six test centres in the city. Since the authorities do not publish the current data, the exact number of cases is unknown. It is suspected that the real numbers are being concealed.

Prof. Dr. Zeki Kılıçaslan is a member of the Science Council of the Istanbul Municipality and lecturer for lung diseases at the Medical Faculty of Istanbul University. In an interview with the Mezopotamya News Agency, the physician confirms that Istanbul, like New York, is a focal point of the pandemic due to its contacts abroad. He points out that on many death certificates only "infectious disease" is noted as the cause of death and these cases are not included in the corona statistics.

"In the death certificates issued in 2018, 2019 and until mid-March 2020, the cause of death 'infectious disease' does not appear. Since mid-March, this cause of death has been written in over a thousand death certificates. A rough estimate is that 60,000 people are suspected to have contracted Coronavirus in Istanbul by mid-April. Compared to previous years, there is a significant increase in the number of deaths overall. Pre-existing conditions or an infectious disease are listed as the cause of death. A large proportion of these are related to the pandemic," explains Kılıçaslan.

According to the Istanbul Medical Association, there are around 2,000 cases of infection among medical staff. So far, nine doctors in the city have died of Covid-19.

In the meantime, the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu of the CHP (Republican People’s Party), has called on the government to declare a 11-day curfew in the city from April 23 to May 4 for a more effective struggle against pandemic. He highlighted the fact that scientists do not consider two-day curfews useful enough to counter the spread of the disease.