COVID-19 | ‘Turkey is in the early stages of the 4th peak’

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - İstanbul

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Assoc. Prof. Emrah Altındiş, a microbiologist from the Boston College Department of Biology and a Faculty Member of Harvard University in the US, has warned that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases have been increasing in Turkey in such a way that the country is now headed to the 4th peak, raising concerns that the restrictions have been prematurely lifted.

Recalling that before the four-day Sacrifice Feast/ Eid al-Adha began on July 20, he had warned that "Turkey would highly likely experience a fourth peak", Altındiş has said that the numner of cases are currently on the rise in Turkey ahead of the 4th peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Emrah Altındiş, the reasons behind the post-Eid increase is that "the restrictions were lifted on July 1; the Eid holiday was extended to nine days and tens of thousands of people went on a vacation; the vaccination rate is low and there exists the Delta variant."

Noting that the "upcoming days are critical," Altındiş has warned that "the cases will increase considerably." He has briefly added:

'This is, in fact, a déjà vu'

"Actually, this is a déjà vu. As a matter of fact, after the restrictions were lifted on June 1, 2020, we saw that the intensive care units were full in several provinces (Ankara, etc.). Millions of people met in closed spaces amid complacency and without any vaccination or with a single dose of the vaccine, which causes a considerable increase in transmission.

The rate of those who have received both doses of vaccine in Turkey is still 25 percent. A single vaccine dose has an extremely low protective effect (around 30 percent for Pfizer) and the vaccination rates are very very low in some provinces. Under these circumstances, August will be a very difficult time in terms of COVID-19.

Altındiş has also raised concerns that the Delta variant has become the dominant variant in Turkey due to the transmission of the virus during the Eid holiday. He has reminded the public that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offer 87-percent protection against this variant.

Underlining that "tens of thousands of people were infected during the holiday and they are now infecting others," Altındiş has said:

"The symptoms will start to appear six days from now; therefore, we will see a real increase in cases starting from Monday. The state will surely manipulate the numbers again." (PT/SD)