Turkish Red Crescent Aims to Help 1Mln Most Vulnerable People Amid COVID-19 Crisis

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th April, 2020) The Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) has launched a campaign to reach out to 1 million most vulnerable people to help them weather the coronavirus crisis, TRC President Dr. Kerem Kinik told Sputnik in an interview.

"Also we are doing our humanitarian activities to the vulnerable people, the people who are living below poverty line. We have launched an appeal. Our aim is to reach 1 million beneficiaries by this launched appeal," Kinik, who is also the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said.

Among other priorities are efforts to raise COVID-19 awareness among society, according to the TRC president.

Also, nearly 20,000 staff on the ground are delivering hot meals to people under quarantine in 60 provinces across the country.

This is in addition to helping hospitals with supplies and initiating plasma therapy in treating the coronavirus.

"We are providing tent hospitals, additional capacity to the ministry of health. And we have blood bank diagnostic testing capacity. We allocated some of our testing capacity to the ministry of health. 6,000 per day coronavirus testing capacity we allocated already," Kinik stated.

As of Friday, Turkey updated its COVID-19 case count by 4,747 to over 47,000. The number of daily infections has been increasing by more than 4,000 for three consecutive days. The death toll is standing at 1,006.