MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th April, 2020) Turkey remains in control of the coronavirus epidemic on its soil and has so far enough hospital capacities to tackle the flow of those infected, Dr. Kerem Kinik, the Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) president, told Sputnik in an interview.
"Total we have 1564 hospitals and 250 thousand beds and 40 thousand intensive care units in capacity. The government and the ministry of health decided to open up additional coronavirus outbreak hospitals, pandemic hospitals in 2 airports. So nowadays it [the situation] is under the control," Kinik, who is also the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said.
According to Kinik, Turkey has a "very good" hospital infrastructure, but the epidemic has not reached a peak yet.
The government, the TRC president noted, has taken "very solid measures" to contain the virus, and the Turks themselves are mainly obeying the rules, with far fewer people now on the streets. Those older than 65 and younger than 20 are in home isolation.
"The speed of the spreading of the virus is not as big as in some European countries if we compare with Italy or Spain or France," he added.
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.
