Turkey 'weighs handing prison sentences to those who violate COVID-19 quarantine rules'

Duvar English

The Turkish government is reportedly planning to impose new preventive measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) amid the increasing number of cases and deaths, with one of the measures being handing prison sentences to those violating quarantine rules.

The prison sentence will be based on an article of the Turkish Penal Code, which regulates behavior in violation of the measures against contagious diseases, daily Hürriyet reported on Sept. 24.

Turkey started a normalization process on June 1, in what critics say over economic concerns and with disregard to the pandemic.

A total of 1,767 new cases were announced on Sept. 23, with the death toll being 72 - its highest since the beginning of May. The country had registered 78 fatalities from the virus on May 2, and since then daily virus deaths had remained below 70.

Ağır hasta sayımız bugün 1.561’e yükseldi. Aktif hasta sayımız artmaya devam ediyor. Bugün tespit edilen 1.767 yeni hastamız var. Sağlık sistemimizin sürdürülebilir ve sağlık çalışanlarımızın hizmet verebilir kalmaları için tedbirleri birlikte uygulayalım. https://t.co/RVlhe7786O

— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) September 23, 2020

The overall case count now stands at 308,069, with 270,723 recoveries.

The increasing numbers prompted the government to discuss new measures to implement, with handing prison sentences between two months and a year to those violating quarantine rules being evaluated.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has also been evaluating the course of the pandemic in fall and winter, but is not weighing imposing curfews, Hürriyet said.

New methods to check whether the rules are abided by will be imposed and those who don't pay their fines will reportedly be faced with a number of restrictions, including a ban on accessing public services.

Turkey records over 70 daily coronavirus deaths for first time since May