Coronavirus deaths in Turkey could reach 600,000, claims Turkish professor

A professor focusing on healthcare systems has warned that up to 600,000 people could die in Turkey from the coronavirus, due to a lack of respirators and intensive care units in the country.

Onur Baser claimed in an interview with Deutsche Welle on Monday that the data suggests at least 30 million Turks could be infected with the virus.

“This means between 150,000 and 600,000 deaths,” said Baser, who serves as the Professor of Economics at MEF University in Istanbul, visiting Professor of Surgery at Columbia University, and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan.

Baser believes that over a million Turks will need to be hospitalized, and without the necessary amount of respirators and ICU beds, fatalities could shoot up.

“At least 320 thousand respirators will be needed. If these people are not connected to the machine, the death rate could reach 90 percent”.

Professor Baser did not provide any basis for his alarming predictions, however.

The Turkish authorities have so far confirmed 1,529 cases and 37 deaths. The latest figures were reported by Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Monday, with more than 20,000 tests having been performed on people suspected of having the coronavirus.

In a statement, the Health Ministry also announced Turkey will hire 32,000 more health workers to deal with the pandemic, as well as rapidly expanding testing and producing more respirators.

The Turkish health minister has also announced that Ankara has bought medicine from China, which is believed to be effective against the virus.

“In the coming days we will be announcing the number of recovering cases every day. I want to note that we have a large number of people who have recovered,” the minister said, without giving further details.

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