COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey

COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey
DiseaseCOVID-19
Virus strainSARS-CoV-2
LocationTurkey
First outbreakWuhan, Hubei, China
Index caseUndisclosed[note 1]
Arrival date11 March 2020
(4 years, 8 months and 11 days)
Confirmed cases17,004,729[1][2]
Recovered17,129,892[2]
Deaths
101,419[1][2]
Fatality rate0.6%
Government website
Ministry of Health
covid19.tubitak.gov.tr
corona.cbddo.gov.tr

The COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

The first case in Turkey was recorded on 11 March, when a local returned home[note 1] from a trip to Europe.[4] The first death due to COVID-19 in the country occurred on 15 March.[4] Turkey stood out from the rest of Europe by not ordering a legal lockdown[note 2][5] until April 2021, when the country enacted its first nationwide restrictions.[6] The government kept many businesses open, and allowed companies to set their own guidelines for workers.[5]

The Turkish health system[5] has the highest number of intensive care units[7] in the world at 46.5 beds per 100,000 people (compared to 9.6 in Greece, 11.6 in France, and 12.6 in Italy). As of 3 May 2021, Turkey's observed case-fatality rate stood at 0.84%, the 148th highest rate globally.[8][9][needs update] This low case-fatality rate has generated various explanations, including the relative rarity of nursing homes,[10] favorable demographics,[11] a long legacy of contact tracing,[12] the high number of intensive care units,[13] universal health care,[12] and a lockdown regime that led to a higher proportion of positive cases among working-age adults.[5] But according to an August 2020 academic study by The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, the government of Turkey has been underreporting COVID-19 statistics.[14]

On 30 September 2020, Turkish Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca acknowledged that since 29 July, the reported number of cases was limited to symptomatic cases that required monitoring, which was met with rebuke by the Turkish Medical Association.[15] This practice ended on 25 November, when the ministry started to report asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cases alongside symptomatic ones.[15]


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ a b Mathieu, Edouard; Ritchie, Hannah; Rodés-Guirao, Lucas; Appel, Cameron; Giattino, Charlie; Hasell, Joe; Macdonald, Bobbie; Dattani, Saloni; Beltekian, Diana; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Roser, Max (2020–2024). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "COVID - Coronavirus Statistics - Worldometer". Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  3. ^ Arseven, Moroğlu (November 2016). "Turkey Introduces Rules for Personal Health Data". lexology.com. Lexology. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference loc0324 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c d "What Turkey got right about the pandemic". The Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited. 4 June 2020. Archived from the original on 23 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020. The strategy of ordering people over 65 to stay home seems to have worked. The most vulnerable escaped the worst of the pandemic, while those infected, mostly working-age adults, generally recovered.
  6. ^ "Covid: Turkey enters first full lockdown". BBC News. 29 April 2021. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  7. ^ Karaj, Vladimir (24 November 2020). "Albanians Spend Millions on COVID-19 Treatment in Turkey". Balkan Insight. Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  8. ^ "Mortality Analyses". Johns Hopkins University. 27 December 2020. Archived from the original on 5 April 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  9. ^ Hasell, Joe; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Ritchie, Hannah; Roser, Max (27 December 2020). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data. Archived from the original on 10 May 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  10. ^ "What Turkey got right about the pandemic". The Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited. 4 June 2020. Archived from the original on 23 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020. Few elderly Turks live in nursing homes, which became breeding grounds for the virus in Europe and America.
  11. ^ "What Turkey got right about the pandemic". The Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited. 4 June 2020. Archived from the original on 23 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020. Demography mattered. Among OECD countries, only Mexico and Colombia have a lower proportion of people aged 65 and over than Turkey does.
  12. ^ a b "Turkey has been contact tracing for a century. That offers lessons and perils". National Geographic. 15 October 2020. Archived from the original on 4 December 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  13. ^ "The Battle Over the Numbers: Turkey's Low Case Fatality Rate". Institut Montaigne. 4 May 2020. Archived from the original on 6 May 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  14. ^ Kisa, Sezer; Kisa, Adnan (3 August 2020). "Under-reporting of COVID-19 cases in Turkey". The International Journal of Health Planning and Management. 35 (5): 1009–1013. doi:10.1002/hpm.3031. ISSN 0749-6753. PMC 7436880. PMID 32744745.
  15. ^ a b Pitel, Laura (1 October 2020). "Turkey admits publishing incomplete coronavirus tally". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 12 December 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2020.