Turkey imposes weekend virus curfew in 24 provinces

By Erdogan Cagatay Zontur

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey has imposed a two-day curfew in 24 provinces beginning Friday at midnight in an effort to stem spread of the novel coronavirus, which has claimed nearly 3,700 lives in the country.

The curfew is going to be effective in the capital Ankara as well as Adana, Balikesir, Bursa, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Manisa, Mardin, Ordu, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Tekirdag, Trabzon, Van and Zonguldak.

The first curfew was declared on April 11-12 and it was followed by other ones in the past weeks.

However, people over 65-year-old will be allowed to leave their homes, remaining within walking distance and wearing masks, on May 10 between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time (0800-1200GMT).

Children under 14 years old will be allowed out on May 13 during the same hours, while 15-20 year-olds will be able to leave their houses on May 15, also within walking distance and wearing masks.

Turkey introduced stay-home orders for those over the age of 65 on March 21, while those under 20 years old have been restricted since April 3 to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

As of Friday, Turkey registered a total of 3,689 deaths due to coronavirus whereas over 86,300 people have recovered from the disease. Currently, there are 135,569 confirmed cases in the country.

After originating in China last December, COVID-19 has spread to at least 187 countries and regions. Europe and the US are currently the worst-hit regions.

The pandemic has killed over 273,000 worldwide, with more than 3.91 million infections, while recoveries have exceeded 1.3 million, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.