COVID-19 Studies Concerning Health, Social and Economic Aspects

Lecturer Semih Baş and Assoc. Prof. Mustafa Demirkıran

The first COVID-19 case in Turkey was detected on March 10, 2020, and announced by the Health Minister Dr. Fahrettin Koca on March 11, 2020 (Ministry of Health of Turkey, 2020b). On the same date, WHO declared the COVID-19 disease as a Pandemic affecting the world, after more than 118,000 cases were found in 114 different countries and 4,291 people died (WHO, 2020c). As a result of the increasing cases and related deaths, the Turkish government implemented strict and comprehensive measures against the COVID-19 outbreak. With the control of the disease over time and the decrease in the number of cases and deaths, the measures have been gradually relaxed as of June 1, 2020. With the relaxation of the measures and the prohibitions' gradual lifting, the “controlled social life” style was adopted and the authorities frequently emphasized the importance of wearing a mask, social distancing, and personal hygiene during this period.

COVID-19 is a type of disease that is transmitted between humans by contact and droplet (Sabino-Silva et al., 2020 ) and has no specific treatment with proven efficacy and validity (Chen et al., 2020; Lai et al., 2020; Murthy et al., 2020 ). There is no approved drug/s used to cure the COVID-19, and no results have been gotten regarding vaccination studies yet (Shaw et al., 2020 ). In the literature, studies and scientific publications related to the status of alternative treatments are ongoing (Tillu et al., 2020; Uysal & Ulusinan, 2020 ). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention described the symptoms as fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, loss of taste and smell, sore throat, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, and nasal congestion or runny nose. The organization also stated that these symptoms appeared 2 to 14 days after exposure to the virus. Individuals who have no symptoms despite carrying the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 and individuals with the disease in the incubation period can transmit the virus to others they come into contact with (Gu et al., 2020 ).

Examination of the demand for healthcare services contributes to the efficient administration of the healthcare sector (Saraçoğlu & Öztürk, 2016; Naldöken et al., 2018 ). Especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic, we are experiencing, examining the demand for healthcare services is of great importance for planning healthcare services and the health sector to effectively fight the pandemic.

Demands for healthcare services also make up the supply of healthcare services (Aydın, 2008 ). The supply of curative health services is provided by primary, secondary, and tertiary therapeutic health services (Olesen & Fleming, 1998; Ministry of Health of Turkey, 2019 ).

The family physician, who is responsible for the supply of primary health care services, is defined as a family medicine specialist who is responsible for providing personalized preventive health services as well as primary care diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitative health services, or a specialist physician or general practitioner who has received the training prescribed by the Ministry of Health of Turkey (Family Medicine Law, 2004: Article 2). The place where one or more family physicians come together to provide healthcare services accompanied by other health personnel is called a family health center (Kavuncubaşı & Yıldırım, 2015 ).

Secondary healthcare services are provided by public and private hospitals known as inpatient treatment institutions. Hospitals are defined as institutions where the sick and injured, those who suspect of illnesses and those who want to have their health status checked, are observed, examined, diagnosed, treated, and rehabilitated on an outpatient or inpatient basis, and also give birth (Inpatient Treatment Institutions Management Regulation, 1983: Article 4).

The supply of tertiary healthcare services is provided by university hospitals and training and research hospitals. The main purpose of such healthcare institutions is to train health professionals and to carry out fully equipped and comprehensive treatment services (Ateş, 2011; Tengilimoğlu et al., 2017 ).