majority of patients experience mild symptoms", but some persons are in higher risk groups, such as those with asthma, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, or who are pregnant or have a weakened immune system. In the rare severe cases, around 3–5 days after symptoms manifest, the sufferer's condition declines quickly, often to the point respiratory failure. The virus reached Turkey in May 2009. A U.S. citizen, flying from the United States via Amsterdam was found to be suffering from the swine flu after arriving at Istanbul's Atatürk International Airport. Turkey is the 17th country in Europe and the 36th country in the world to report an incident of swine flu. The Turkish Government has taken measures at the international airports, using thermal imaging cameras to check passengers coming from international destinations. The first case of person to person transmission within Turkey was announced on 26 July 2009. On 2 November, the Turkish Health Ministry began administering vaccines against H1N1 influenza, starting with health workers. After a slow start, the virus spread rapidly in Turkey and the number of cases reached 12,316. First death confirmed on 24 October and death toll reached 627. COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey The COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The disease was confirmed to have reached Turkey on 11 March 2020, after a man who had returned to Turkey from Europe, tested positive. The first death due to COVID-19 in the country occurred on 15 March 2020 and by 1 April, it was confirmed that COVID-19 had spread all over Turkey. On 14 April 2020, the head of the Turkish Ministry of Health Fahrettin Koca announced that the spread of the virus in Turkey has reached its peak in the fourth week and started to slow down. The disease is exacerbated by air pollution, for example from burning coal in Turkey for residential heating. , the total number of confirmed cases in the country is over 222,400. Among these cases, 205,200 have recovered and 5,500 have died. On 18 April 2020, the total number of positive test results surpassed that of Iran, making it the highest in the Middle East. Turkey also surpassed China in confirmed total cases on 20 April 2020. The rapid increase of the confirmed cases in Turkey did not overburden the public healthcare system, and