Turkey's active Covid cases dropped below zero due to 'synchronization error,' says minister

Photo: AA/File

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Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca has explained how the number of active coronavirus cases in the country "dropped below zero."

On Friday (April 29), the number of active cases, which is found by subtracting the total of daily new recoveries and deaths from the new cases, was -4,776, with 1,924 new cases, 8,302 new recoveries and 9 deaths.

This was caused by a "synchronization error" between the systems where the Covid-19 figures are recorded, Koca said on Twitter.

The problem had been there since April 14 and was noticed when the number of active cases dropped below zero, which is "mathematically not possible," the minister noted, adding that the number of active cases was 17,259 on that day.

"We also wish remedies to those who are obsessed with fragments of information that would make us look unsuccessful in the fight against Covid-19," the minister further wrote, referring to those questioning the accuracy of the official figures.

Quoting the minister's tweets, Prof. Fatih Tank, a statistician who has been making graphics about the pandemic on his social media account, said, "I don't know if the sync problem would have been noticed if we hadn't noticed it."

Also, with the current trend of daily new cases and recoveries, the number of active cases may drop below zero again in 10 days, he also warned.

Yalnız şöyle bir sıkıntı var.

Şu an 17.259 olan aktif vaka sayısı, bu trend ile 10 gün içerisinde tekrar eksiye düşebilir.#covid19tr #coronavirus #covid19 https://t.co/MCSFm79oyD

— Prof. Fatih Tank (@fatihtank) April 30, 2022

Turkey's official Covid-19 figures have been disputed by health workers' groups and opposition politicians since the start of the pandemic.

In September 2020, Minister Koca admitted that they had been excluding asymptomatic cases from the ministry's daily table. Also, in November 2020, the number of those who died of "an infectious disease" in İstanbul was similar to the ministry's official death toll for the entire country. 

CLICK - Is Turkey underreporting coronavirus deaths? Here is what we know

(RT/VK)