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Thirteen healthcare professionals have died over the past three days while combatting the coronavirus pandemic, the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) announced on Tuesday.
“We are losing healthcare workers every day and getting exhausted [in the fight against COVID-19] due to the policies of the government, which is not taking the necessary preventative measures [against the pandemic],” the TTB tweeted.
The association has been calling on the Turkish government to take effective measures and introduce a lockdown to contain the pandemic and protect healthcare workers, who are overwhelmed by the surge in the number of coronavirus patients.
According to a statement from the TTB in September, 95 healthcare workers have lost their lives while close to 8,000 have been infected with the coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic in Turkey on March 11.
The Turkish government refuses to declare a lockdown or take preventative measures to bring the pandemic under control. A partial lockdown declared in the spring months was lifted in June.
Turkey does not reveal the exact number of the people infected with the coronavirus every day. The Turkish Health Ministry instead announces the number of “patients” who are being treated at hospitals for COVID-19, while people who have been infected with the virus but not hospitalized are excluded from the numbers.
Meanwhile, according to a chart released by the Turkish Health Ministry on Monday, there were 2,576 coronavirus “patients” in Turkey over the past 24 hours, with 85 people dying from COVID-19.
The COVID-19 death toll in the country stands at 10,972, while the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units is 2,867.