ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkey will begin reporting its total number of coronavirus cases later this week, the country’s fitness minister said in an interview published sunday, after Ankara was criticized for posting only figures on patients with symptoms of infection.
Fahrettin Koca told Hurriyet newspaper that asymptomatic cases would be included in the knowledge throughOut Turkey as of October 15, which would be shared with the World Health Organization.
Last month, the minister revealed that Turkey had only published the number of patients with COVID-19 symptoms, resulting in complaints from medical teams and opposition parties that had long questioned the accuracy of statistics.
Turkey’s most recent figures on Saturday showed 1,649 new patients and 56 deaths. More than 334,000 patients have been reported since the outbreak began and 8,778 deaths.