It has been two years since Turkey faced the steep risk of the coronavirus with the number of cases snowballing. The country was forced to build new hospitals in Istanbul exclusively to handle the mounting number of cases. For months, health care workers were forced to work long shifts, with no contact with their families.

As Turkey yearns for a return to pre-pandemic days, the state of hospitals appears to be a harbinger of good times to come. Once brimming with patients fighting for their lives and staff in full protective gear, coronavirus wards are mostly empty and intensive care units are hosting fewer coronavirus patients.

In Istanbul, Turkey’s most populated city, which was also the city with highest number of cases once, local health authorities hail the current state in the pandemic. The city now has only about 196 cases per every 100,000 people, according to the figures from the last week of March. Moreover, most cases are patients who recover after self-isolation.