Turkish Medical Association: Turkey's daily Covid-19 cases exceed 47,000

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The number of daily Covid-19 cases in Turkey exceeds 47,000, according to a Turkish Medical Association (TTB) report based on data from family healthcare centers.

The association surveyed 1,270 family doctors from 73 of the 81 provinces in the country to assess the situation of the outbreak.

Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca admitted in late September that the ministry was excluding asymptomatic cases from its daily count, announcing only the number of what it calls "patients."

While the number of "patients" was announced as 4,542 yesterday (November 19), the number of all cases is more than 10 times higher, says the TTB report.

Based on its survey, the association estimates that the number of daily new cases assigned to family doctors is 47,629 and this figure does not include hospitalized patients as they are not monitored by family doctors.

The estimated number of daily non-hospitalized cases in İstanbul, the largest and the most affected city by the pandemic, is 12,631, says the report.

The average number of patients with a positive PCR test monitored by a family doctor has increased from 6,53 to 19,79 in a month, which means that the number of cases has tripled, according to the report.

Also, the number of infected health workers at family healthcare centers increased by 25 percent compared to October, the report notes.

More than 90 percent of the participant doctors said they saw an increase in the number of patients.

The TTB estimates that at least 500,000 Covid-19 cases with a positive PCR test are being monitored at home. (VK)