CHANGES HEADLINE, ADDS PRESIDENT'S REMARKS FROM OPENING CEREMONY, UPDATES FIGURES
By Burak Bir and Jeyhun Aliyev
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey on Sunday opened an emergency hospital in the metropolis Istanbul as part of the country's continued fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The new Yesilkoy Prof. Dr. Murat Dilmener Emergency Hospital was named after a Turkish doctor and academic who died due to the virus on May 3.
Attending the opening ceremony were Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vice President Fuat Oktay, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca and other top officials.
Speaking at the opening, Erdogan stressed the importance of emergency hospitals.
"Thank Allah, we have prevented the spread of the pandemic even without a need for additional capacity we created here [in the new hospital]," he said.
The emergency hospitals put into service in the country in only two months during the COVID-19 outbreak constituted "an exemplary model," he stressed.
The country is making "very serious" progress in the health tourism, Erdogan added.
Turkey on Friday opened an emergency hospital in Istanbul, Dr. Feriha Oz Emergency Hospital -- named after a world-renowned Turkish pathologist who was claimed by the virus this April.
COVID-19 recoveries have steadily rose in Turkey over the past weeks, reaching almost 128,000 as of Sunday.
The country's overall case count stands at 163,942, including 4,540 fatalities.
Erdogan underlined that conditions in the aftermath of the pandemic promised to place Turkey in a "very advantageous" position in the global economy.
"We've managed to overcome the problem by building permanent hospitals in a much shorter time than many countries in the world," he said.
The pandemic has claimed over 370,000 lives in 188 countries and regions, with more than 6.1 million cases reported worldwide, including over 2.6 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.
- Hadimkoy Dr. Ismail Niyazi Kurtulmus Hospital
Erdogan also attended the opening ceremony of the Hadimkoy Dr. Ismail Niyazi Kurtulmus Hospital in Istanbul, which was built during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II and has been renovated by Erdogan's order.
Speaking at the ceremony, Erdogan wished the hospital be beneficial for the city, country and nation.
He reiterated that the facility had functioned in the past as a military hospital for almost a century.
Erdogan also praised Dr. Ismail Niyazi Kurtulmus -- the hospital's namesake -- for working hard to raise a "good" and "religious" youth.
"Fortunately, we were blessed to be the ones to restore the military hospital built by Sultan Abdulhamid II in Hadimkoy 129 years ago and to submit it to our nation's service," Erdogan said on Twitter, sharing the video of the hospital's project.
Resotred in 45 days, the Hadimkoy Dr. Ismail Niyazi Kurtulmus Hospital has a total capacity of 101 beds, including 59 intensive care units.