Turkey's coronavirus death toll passes 10,000

Healthcare workers wearing protective are at Gazi University Hospital as they fight against coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in Ankara, Turkey on 12 September 2020. [Emin Sansar – Anadolu Agency]

Turkey’s death toll from the coronavirus rose above 10,000 on Wednesday and the health minister raised the alarm about a 62% weekly surge in number of cases in the country’s most populated city Istanbul, Reuters reports.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 2,300 new COVID-19 patients were recorded in the country, in a press conference following a meeting of the government’s science board. The death toll rose to 10,027, Koca said.

“If we don’t get the situation in Istanbul under control, the outbreak will spiral out of control,” he said.

Koca said the biggest reason for the increasing numbers in Istanbul was public transportation as millions of workers pack mass transit vehicles during rush hour, creating a perfect environment for the virus to spread.

READ: Netanyahu prays for pro-Israel Saudi blogger with Covid-19

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.