Turkey Cover up COVID-19 Death Toll rise

Turkey’s daily coronavirus infections and deaths have considerably risen. However, doctors and local politicians in Turkey are voicing concern that the government is downplaying the scale of the resurgent coronavirus outbreak.

The latest official figures suggest there are around 1,700 new infections and around 60 deaths every day across the country. But doctors say the numbers do not add up, as they are seeing a much higher prevalence of the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.

Similar concerns were raised by the mayors of Turkey’s two biggest cities, Istanbul and Ankara. The mayors, both members of the opposition Republican People’s Party, warned of a mismatch between statistics from the Ministry of Health and the numbers they were receiving locally. 

The mayor of Istanbul said the number of local infections in his city equaled the government figures for the whole country.

At a recent webinar organized by opposition parties, the mayor of Ankara, said, “What benefit is there to underreporting the numbers? In my view, it should be the other way round. Otherwise, people won’t stop going to weddings, going to funerals. They won’t stop gathering together.”

The country's economic situation made the threat of a pandemic worrying. Turkey already had high unemployment, inflation, and the looming possibility of a recession due to a massive fall in its currency.