‘Why don’t you share patient data with İstanbul Municipality?’

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) İstanbul MP Ali Kenanoğlu has asked Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca why the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) data is not shared with the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İMM).

Submitting a Parliamentary question to the Speaker's Office to be addressed to the Ministry of Health, Kenanoğlu has said:

"For the last week, İstanbul has been witnessing at least 50 more deaths than the ones announced for the entire Turkey. The İMM has stated that if the patient data is given to the municipality, this information will be added to their public transportation cards and the necessary action will be taken against the ones who try to get on the bus."

Underlining that the related data is not given to the municipality despite this statement, the MP has indicated that the mindset of fining people is still in place. Accordingly, he has asked the Minister the following questions:

'What does "infectious disease" mean?'

"Will you make any evaluations or comments as to the recommendations for a lockdown to be imposed in İstanbul for two or three weeks so that the outbreak will not reach more dangerous dimensions?

"Do you think that the outbreak can be defeated only by wearing masks, keeping distance and observing hygiene rules?

"Considering that the number of cases announced for Turkey is fewer than even the ones announced by the European countries whose population is smaller than İstanbul, what does this mean?

"Why does the information shared by medical institutions with the Directorate of Cemeteries fail to overlap with those who died of coronavirus?

"What is the reason for not sharing the patient data with the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality?

"What is the point of following and fining coronavirus patients after they get on public transport vehicles?

"How many coronavirus patients have been understood to have used public transport when infected and how many of them have been fined?

"What does the 'infectious disease' expression mean?

"According to the table shared by the Ministry of Health on November 14, 92 people lost their lives due to coronavirus across Turkey. On the same day, 164 people lost their lives due to an 'infectious disease' in İstanbul. How does your Ministry evaluate these contradictory figures?" (DŞ/SD)