* Photo: Hasan Hüseyin Kulaoğlu - İstanbul / AA
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The Health Ministry's Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board will convene today (April 8) to discuss the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) measures to be taken during the Ramadan, which will start on April 13.
It was previously announced that cafes and restaurants would be closed across Turkey when the Islamic month of fasting started.
Making a statement yesterday, President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, "We aim to give a rest to our country during Ramadan and prepare it for better days after the Eid. We aim to decrease our numbers during Ramadan. Our priority is health."
Amid a surge in the numbers of cases and deaths across the country, scientists have also been calling for a total lockdown.
According to the latest figures shared by the Ministry of Health yesterday, the daily case number hit a new record in Turkey. The Ministry reported 54,740 cases and 276 fatalities in the last 24 hours.
Situation in İstanbul by districts
The İstanbul Family Physicians Association has conducted a study by using a special algorithm to convert the amount of yellow (high risk) and red (very high risk) areas in İstanbul as well as the information provided by 4 thousand 700 family physicians into numerical data.
Based on the map shared in the Health Ministry's "Life Fits into Home" (Hayat Eve Sığar - HES) app and the data provided by physicians, the association has listed the districts and neighborhoods which saw the highest increase in the number of cases from March 10 to April 4.
The study has shown that the density of red and yellow areas in İstanbul has increased by 25.7 percent in the last week.
The highest average increase has been witnessed in:
* Adalar district: 211.5 percent
* Silivri: 115.4 percent
* Arnavutköy: 77.5 percent
* Beykoz: 68.2 percent
* Sultanbeyli: 59.3 percent
* Tuzla: 51.3 percent
* Beşiktaş: 50 percent
Some neighborhoods where the highest increase in the number of COVID-19 cases has been witnessed are as follows:
* Bakırköy: Kartaltepe
* Bağcılar: İnönü ve Kemalpaşa
* Bahçelievler: Yenibosna, Soğanlı, Çobançeşme, Şirinevler
* Gaziosmanpaşa: Barbaros ve Sarıgöl
* Şişli: Halide Edip Adıvar, Eskişehir, Ayazağa, Maslak
* Beşiktaş: Gayrettepe, Akatlar, Ulus, Türkali, Bebek
* Esenler: Kazım Karabekir, Oruçreis, Namık Kemal
* Esenyurt: Örnek, Selahaddin Eyyubi, Mevlana
* Kadıköy: Göztepe, Hasanpaşa, Kozyatağı, 19 Mayıs
* Sultanbeyli: Mehmet Akif, Yavuz Selim, Turgut Reis
* Ümraniye: Ihlamurkuyu, Atatürk, Dumlupınar
'No one will remain uninfected'
Speaking to Mert İnan from daily Milliyet, İstanbul Family Physicians Association Vice Chair Dr. Mustafa Tamur has said:
"The risk posed by a district with an increase in cases to a district without an increase has risen by 7.5 percent. We call it the combined risk of increase. For instance, if the number of cases is seriously increasing in Pendik, an interaction of 7.5 percent is inevitable due to the combined risk, even when there is no increase in cases in Kartal district."
Dr. Tamur has also noted that "as the low income groups are commuting to work, they are constantly moving," adding that "the way things stand, there will remain no one uninfected by the virus."
Raising concerns that "the increase in the number of cases has been at unprecedented rates," he has said, "When we consider the infection rate of the UK, Brazil and Africa variants, we can say that there are nearly 100 thousand active cases in İstanbul now." (AS/SD)
