HDP calls on Health Minister Koca to resign

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Health and Social Policies Commission Co-Spokesperson Dr. Samet Mengüç has shared the HDP's views on the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey.

Holding a press conference in front of the HDP İstanbul Organization today (November 23), Dr. Mengüç said that Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca could not manage the pandemic and he should resign from office.

"The wide numbers of patients and deaths come as no surprise, it happened in plain sight," he protested, raising concerns that the numbers keep on increasing. "Unfortunately, all unfavorable situations are the result of a conscious choice," he said and added, "Who has failed at this point of the pandemic is the current government and the Ministry of Health."

'Did 4 million people have the disease in İstanbul?'

HDP's Mengüç also referred to the recent statements of İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who said today, "Last evening, the number of people who lost their lives due to the infectious disease was 186 in İstanbul. What should I do now?" Mengüç briefly stated:

"One of the basic rules of fighting an epidemic disease is to know against what you are fighting. You need to know the atmosphere where you stand. We obtain this knowledge from data.

"The data shared by Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu are the real data. You see it in the statements of the Ministry of Health. In a statement released by the Health Ministry the other day, it was said that '25 percent of İstanbul's population might be immune to the disease.'

"On the one side, you announce the total number of cases as 400 thousand; on the other side, you say that 4 million people are immune. The data they are hiding are revealed in their own statements.

"Saying that 25 percent is immune to the disease means that at least 4 million people have already had this disease. ... If only 25 percent of İstanbul's population were immune despite all this devastation. We do not have any data about this, either."

'Only symptomatic cases are counted'

In his press conference on September 30, 2020, Health Minister Koca previously indicated that they did not add everyone who tested positive for COVID-19 to the number of daily patients and they considered only the ones who showed the symptoms as "patients."

CLICK - Turkey admits not disclosing number of all Covid-19 cases

Until July 29, 2020, the expression of "number of daily cases" was used on the Health Ministry's COVID-19 table. It has then been understood that after this day, it has been changed into "number of daily patients." (DŞ/SD)