Turkey's new daily coronavirus cases top 1,000 once again
Turkey's daily coronavirus cases on June 12 exceeded 1,000 once again as the country has started to ease the restrictions taken to limit the spread of virus. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has cautioned against growing optimism that the coronavirus has been contained.
Duvar English
The number of new daily coronavirus cases in Turkey surpassed 1,000 on June 12, for the first time since late May as the government eased the restrictions taken to fight the virus.
The country on June 12 registered 1,195 new cases, bringing the total to 175,218, the Health Ministry data showed.
The death toll from the outbreak is at 4,778 after the country reported 15 new fatalities over 24 hours.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca once again warned citizens against “faulty optimism” and urged them to wear masks, pay attention to social distancing measures and not to neglect hygiene.
“The number of our patients who have not yet recovered is at 25,000. The increase in the number of intensive care and intubated patients is within the limits of the expected increase. The virus' spread stems from faulty optimism,” Koca wrote on Twitter.
Turkey's daily virus cases fell below 1,000 for the first time on May 20. This marked a change in the fight against the virus as the country had seen around 5,000 cases a day in early April.
The Health Ministry's most recent figures came as Turkey entered a “normalization” process.
On June 1, the government allowed restaurants, cafes and parks to open their doors after weeks of closures. A week later on June 9, Ankara announced that it removed confinement rules on people over 65 years old and those under 18, and cinemas and theaters would be allowed to reopen from July 1.
On June 11, the Interior Ministry announced that the country reopened all land, sea and air borders for passenger traffic, except for the land border with Iran.