There is no corona in Turkmenistan, according to the official statement. But the country’s clinics are overburdened, and the Foreign Office lists Turkmenistan as a “high-risk area”. In an interview with the BBC, a former Covid 19 patient reports cover-up and secrecy.
In many countries, the corona numbers are currently rising again – often it is already the third or fourth wave. It is different in Turkmenistan: According to official figures, there is no corona here. The statistics of the state with a population of six million list zero infected and zero deaths. Only a handful of countries worldwide report similarly miraculous numbers, including North Korea.
There are considerable international doubts about the presentation, also because neighboring countries such as Uzbekistan sometimes report high numbers of infections.
The Foreign Office in Germany The health system is “overloaded”, it says on the website with country-specific information. It should also be assumed that there is a “high number of unreported cases in the number of infections”.
An eyewitness report shows how dramatic the situation is in the country. He managed to speak to a former Covid 19 patient in Turkmenistan, who officially should not even exist. In the article he is called Sayahat Kurbanov, but his real name is different. The man’s descriptions reveal the methods used to cover up corona cases in the heavily isolated country.
“Pneumonia” instead of Covid-19
Kurbanov developed symptoms typical of Covid 19 last month: he complained of shortness of breath and chest pain, and called an ambulance. The doctor who rushed over only told him that he had pneumonia and had to go to hospital immediately. He did not mention that it could be Covid-19.
At this point in time, Kurbanov already suspected that he could have contracted the corona virus. Days earlier he had had a test done in a clinic. He had to telephone after the result. When he got to the clinic, a person told him in a low voice that the test was positive. “What is positive?” Asked Kurbanov. “Is it Covid?” “Yes.” He did not receive proof of the positive test, he reported to the BBC.
Defective oxygen equipment
The first clinic couldn’t take him in, it was already full. The second hospital could not help either – it was only allowed to take care of patients who were registered in the capital Ashgabat. His condition continued to deteriorate. “The disease was progressing so quickly. I started banging on the window and shouting, ‘Please stop, I can’t breathe’. They gave me oxygen, but it didn’t help much.”
It was only with the help of a doctor friend of mine that Kurbanov was admitted to a clinic and experienced dire conditions there. There were only a few nurses in the hospital who cared for more than 60 people. At times he observed how a cleaning lady put syringes. The nurses, in turn, told him about defective oxygen devices and patients who had collapsed and died before them.
After ten days, Kurbanov was discharged from the clinic and received a bill for $ 2,000, the equivalent of a little over 1,700 euros. He did not hear the words “Corona” or “Covid” during his stay. The staff only spoke of “the virus” or “the disease”.
Reports like this shake the propaganda image of a healthy nation that President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov wants to maintain by all means. There is no free press in Turkmenistan that could report on the grievances. The portal “Turkmen.news” based in the Netherlands, including many medical professionals and doctors.
The exiled journalist Ruslan Myatiev works for the portal. He recently reported: “Both doctors, ordinary people and high officials acknowledge, of course only in private conversations, that the situation has gotten out of control for a long time. That the health system is not up to it. That every day, if not hundreds, so surely dozens will die. “
Mask compulsory because of “dust”
For a few weeks now, masks and certain quarantine regulations have been mandatory in Turkmenistan. The authorities do not want to admit that the corona virus has long been in the country. According to the official presentation, the order to wear a mask is a protective measure against “dust”.
For the journalist Ruslan Mjatijew, who lives in the Netherlands, this sounds like a mockery: “Sorry, but we’ve been living our whole life in a country that is 80 percent sand. And now they’re telling us about dust in the air.”
“Is it the dust that we die of?” Asks Sayahat Kurbanov and adds: “They will let people die, but they will never admit that they have Covid.”
Sources used: BBC / Foreign Office / Deutschlandfunk
