Curfew is not on Turkey's agenda for the moment, says Health Minister Koca

Duvar English

Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said that authorities are not at the moment considering the reimposition of curfews to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“The virus has not weakened but it is a reality that the doctors' treatment power has strengthened. In the upcoming period, we are not thinking of a situation like a curfew. This did not come up at the [Coronavirus] Science Committee,” Koca said during a press meeting on June 17.

Kocamade the remarks after chairing the Health Ministry's CoronavirusScience Commitee.

The government takes decision concerning virus measures in line with the recommendations brought forward by the Science Committee.

Koca said that the Committee advised the government to mandate mask wearing in all public spaces in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and the western province of Bursa.

Wearing masks in public is currently compulsory in about half of Turkey’s provinces, but not in the big cities.

Kocaonce again stressed that the public must continue to abide bymeasures such as wearing masks and maintaining social distance toensure the virus does not flare up.

The minister also shared the daily infection data. The total number of registered coronavirus cases in the country rose to 182,727 as 1,429 more people tested positive for the virus, Koca said.  

The country's death toll from COVID-19 reached 4,861 as 19 more people died over the past 24 hours, he also said.

On June 1, the government authorized cafes, restaurants, gyms, parks, beaches and museums to reopen and eased stay-at-home orders for the elderly and young. It also ended the series of weekend lockdowns in place since April.

However soon after this sudden normalization process took off, the country started to see a rise in infection figures. New Covid-19 cases have recently roughly doubled to over 1,500 per day since June 1.