Turkish authorities have decided to tighten existing restrictions to reduce the number of people falling ill during the New Year holidays. A curfew will be in force across the country from December 31.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke at a press conference following a cabinet meeting, announced the new restrictions.
“We are already beginning to see the results of the restrictions that were imposed earlier. A continuous curfew will be introduced from 9 pm on December 31 to 5 am on January 4,” Erdogan commented. Besides, Erdogan promised all of the vaccines from abroad would be available in the country as soon as possible. At the same time, the possibility of their vaccines being produced is also being considered. The government hopes that this will be realized by the spring of 2021.
From November 30, Turkey introduced a curfew from 9 pm to 5 am, and entirely on weekends. Also, new restrictive measures have affected the operation of shopping centers and stores, including grocery stores. Special “health codes” have been introduced for residents to visit public places. Turkey currently ranks 6th globally for the total number of COVID-19 cases, with more than 1.8 million patients. Since then, 1.6 million have been recovered, and the number of fatal cases has reached 16,417. In the past 24 hours, 29,617 more cases have been identified.