‘COVID-19 pandemic may ease in two months if measures implemented’

Individuals, as well as the private sector, need to better implement the measures taken against the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a member of the Health Ministry's coronavirus science committee.

"If we can implement the isolation in an efficient way, I would think the outbreak will start to subside in two months' time. But everything depends on us," Profesor Fusün Eyüboğlu has told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Tell us how you see the current situation in Turkey.

Turkey ranks 14th in the world in terms of the number of COVID-19 cases. Compared to other countries like Italy, for instance, we seem to have a faster rate of increase in the numbers of diagnosed cases. At this stage, we do not know when we will reach the peak.

Why are we showing a faster trend? Shouldn't we be more prepared to slow down the spread?

The more you do the tests, the more you see positive cases. Maybe there was a difference in terms of the number of tests conducted in Italy in the first two weeks. It was apparent that we were going to be affected by the outbreak, so now we have to try to reach the peak with fewer patients. I think we might see the peak in two or three weeks' time.

The Health Ministry is releasing the numbers of those diagnosed with COVID-19. But there are also cases in hospitals that are suspected of having been infected by COVID-19 yet are still waiting to be tested. Shouldn't they be included in the statistics?

Indeed, the more tests we do, the more we will catch the positive cases. There are cases in hospitals which make us think they might have the virus, so probably we should assume that the numbers will turn out to be higher.

When looking at the statistics in...