Unnamed Doctor Announces New COVID-19 Cluster From First Friday Prayers At Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia (Abdullah Oguk/Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Five hundred new cases of COVID-19 were reported from the first Friday prayers attended by 350 people at Hagia Sophia, Turkey, last July 24. Those who are positive include journalists and members of parliament.

An unnamed doctor who was interviewed by Arab News said the lack of social distancing and the large number of congregants who did not wear masks were the causes. "It (is known) because they undergo routine checks every three days to make sure they are healthy," he said, quoted on Friday, August 14.

In Turkey, the addition of new cases continues to occur. In fact, there was a surge of more than a thousand cases after the last Eid al-Adha. "If ordinary citizens also get a similar test, the actual number of cases will be higher."

"If things continue like this, there won't be anyone in the hospital who isn't infected ... There may even be a shortage of medical personnel who have resigned from work or become sick."

The first Friday prayers at the Hagia Sophia are great euphoria. So many important figures were present at that moment, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

At that time, Hagia Sophia had just been re-established as a mosque, after previously being a museum. Previously, the Hagia Sophia has also been an important place of worship for Orthodox Christians for centuries.

This continued until Istanbul - which later became known as Constantinople - fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Since then, the Hagia Sophia has been built into a mosque.

Then, after the presence of the Republic of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the status of the Hagia Sophia was changed to a museum in 1934. The status lasted until the day Erdogan announced the decision to return the Hagia Sophia to a mosque.

There has been no official comment from the Turkish government regarding this new cluster. To date, Turkey has recorded 243,180 cases of COVID-19 infection, with a total of 5,873 deaths.