ISTANBUL — As countries around the world try to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, medical groups and opposition figures in Turkey are finding the limits of their operating space as Ankara works on a centralized national response.

Health professionals told Al-Monitor that conflicting interests between state and local actors may put additional strain on efforts to contain COVID-19 in Turkey, where 13,531 cases have been recorded and 214 patients have died as of Tuesday evening.

To date, the Turkish Health Ministry has been releasing coronavirus statistics via Twitter and, more recently, a coronavirus information website, but the figures lack transparency, according to Dr. Bulent Nazim Yilmaz, secretary general of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), who has repeatedly called on Ankara to publish patients’ location data to help track the pandemic.

Frustrated by the lack of response, the TTB began releasing its own figures charting COVID-19’s regional impacts on Twitter Monday evening, publicizing credible, city-specific coronavirus data for the first time in Turkey. One of a string of tweets reported more than 2,000 patients were being monitored in Istanbul, while another stated the Aegean city of Izmir had about 700 coronavirus patients.