COVID-19 cases in Ankara double the numbers in Istanbul, says health minister

ANKARA

The total number of cases in Turkey’s capital Ankara is two times more than the number of cases in Istanbul, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, reiterating that Turkey is going through the second peak of the first wave of the novel coronavirus.

Koca noted that Ankara now has the highest number of confirmed cases in Turkey, but he did not provide any specific figures.

Asked whether the hospitals in Ankara, which had been closed down previously, would reopen, Koca said, “We always tend to reopen the shut hospitals. I have said this since day one. We are working to keep those hospitals’ intensive care units in service.”

“No one in the country has caught the virus twice, but it does not mean it will never happen,” the minister said. 

“The outbreak has not spun out of control. However, the carelessness at weddings and religious holidays has bought us to this point,” he said, adding that curfews are not on the government’s agenda for now.