Drop in swine flu cases in Turkey, says health minister

"The peak season of the flu is over. The number of (H1N1/swine flu) cases has dropped significantly in the past couple of days," Muezzinoglu said, adding that the daily statistics were published weekly by the Public Health Institute, and that the latest figures should be released by Thursday.

The health minister had ruled out a swine flu epidemic in Turkey, when he attended an editors' meeting at The Anadolu Agency's headquarters in the capital Ankara last week.

He also said that at least 33 people had died in Turkey because of the swine flu since the beginning of the 2014-2015 flu season. 

According to Muezzinoglu, almost half of those people were aged over 65 and were suffering from other diseases along with the deadly virus. Some 18 patients infected by H1N1 were between 25 and 55 years old.

A scientific committee under the Ministry of Health in early March had also ruled out a swine flu outbreak and predicted that the flu season would be over by the end of the month. 

Authorities establish the period ranging from October to April as the flu season.

"Power outage did not pose fatal risk"

Muezzinoglu said that no patients had been affected by the nationwide electricity blackout Tuesday.

"Around 180 patients were taken from their homes and transferred to hospitals during the power outage," he said.

The biggest power cut in Turkey's history affected as many as 45 provinces, and lasted in some cases up to 11 hours.

Turkish Electricity Transmission Company, TEIAS, attributed the blackout to problems in transmission lines. 

Anadolu Agency