'Over 300 COVID-19 cases are diagnosed in Diyarbakır a day’

* Photo: AA-Archive

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The Diyarbakır Health Platform has announced that the number of positive novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases diagnosed in Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakır a day exceeds an average of 300.

According to the Diyarbakır Health Platform, which the Diyarbakır Medical Chamber and Health Laborers Diyarbakır Branch are also members of, the number of COVID-19 fatalities only in a neighborhood in Silvan district of Diyarbakır topped 10 three days ago.

The platform has once again called on the authorities to take the necessary measures, underlining that individual measures are not enough.

'It has hit the peak in Southeast Anatolia'

"While the measures taken at the outset of the outbreak are being gradually eased in the world, we are faced with the consequences of the swiftly-initiated normalization process in Turkey," the statement has noted.

"The official statistics, which we - as health laborers - know very well that do not reflect the truth cannot hide the fact that the outbreak is spreading quite rapidly in both our province and other provinces in the region."

Indicating that "the monthly, weekly and daily reports shared by the Ministry of Health and the Twitter posts about the issue, in fact, show how grave the situation is," the statement has made the following observations:

"The official statistics also show that the highest increase in the number of cases has been witnessed in the provinces of the region as of mid-June.

"The Southeast Anatolia has hit the peak in the statistics translated into rates. As of July 20-27, the new case incidence is 16.6 per hundred thousand in the Southeast Anatolia, which is more than two times higher than Turkey average (8 per hundred thousand)."

'Over 600 patients hospitalized'

Sharing further details about the situation in Diyarbakır, the platform has said that while 600 COVID-19 patients are currently treated at hospitals, 100 of them are treated in intensive care units.

"As far as we can have access, an average of over 300 new daily cases are diagnosed with PCR tests in the last week," the platform has said, underlining that this figure accounts for one third of all positive COVID-19 cases officially announced by the Ministry of Health.

Raising concerns about the "extraordinary increase" in the number of cases in recent days, it has also warned against a series of factors such as the visits to be made by people on Eid-al-Adha, the "extreme normalization" caused by the perception of success in the face of COVID-19 pandemic, the planned opening of schools in late August, the upcoming influenza season and tiredness of healthcare personnel.

'Over 15 percent in intensive care in Diyarbakır'

Sharing further statistics about the situation in Diyarbakır, the platform has noted that while 1.5 percent of active cases are treated in intensive care units, this rate is 10 percent in Turkey. However, in Diyarbakır, over 15 percent of diagnosed COVID-19 patients are in intensive care.

Concluding its remarks, the platform has also said that there is a rapid increase in the number of infected healthcare personnel as the number of cases are also on the increase in Diyarbakır.

According to the statement, at least 296 healthcare workers have tested positive for the virus in the province. (AÖ/SD)