UPDATE - Turkey: Major auto factories to reopen by May 11

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - As Turkey eases the measures it introduced in response to the novel coronavirus, all major automotive factories in the country will restart operations by May 11, the country's industry and technology minister said Tuesday.

"A large chunk of automotive factories have already restarted production," Mustafa Varank told an Ankara Chamber of Commerce online meeting.

He also said some textile firms are back in operation, and with the normalization of malls and export channels, this sector will recover fast.

After resuming operations, factories should plan practices to guarantee the health of their personnel, he said.

"Every detail is very important from the sitting order in the services to the shifts in the factory," he added.

After the worldwide spread of coronavirus from China, many factories had to halt production due to measures to stem the virus’ spread, such as lockdowns.

In Turkey, factories were not closed completely, even during curfew periods when the government allowed some companies to continue working as they could have faced huge losses in the event of closure, he underlined.

Some 16,900 firms continued their operations during this period, he added.

Noting that China also faced manufacturing problems, Varank said Turkey had the potential to become a supply center for global companies.

- Measures against pandemic

Underlining that rate of recovery from the virus has surpassed infections in Turkey, Varank said 3 million employees had benefited from the country's wage supports introduced to help tackle the pandemic's economic impact.

The government had also distributed aid of 1,000 Turkish liras ($141) to 4.5 million low-income households, he added.

In the course of the outbreak, Turkey did not face shortages of medical equipment or food and even began to mass-produce an indigenous mechanical ventilator in just two weeks, said Varank.

He added that Turkey would establish an additional lab in the capital Ankara to test for the virus, with a capacity of over 4,000 tests a day. To date, the country has conducted 1.17 million tests.

He added that officials would begin conducting tests in the northwestern provinces of Istanbul, Bursa, and Tekirdag as well.

As of Monday, Turkey registered a total of 3,461 deaths due to coronavirus, while 68,166 people have recovered from the disease. To date, the country has seen a total of 127,659 confirmed cases of the virus.

In recent days Turkey has seen the number of total recoveries from the virus top the number of cases to date.

More than 3.6 million cases have been reported in 187 countries and regions worldwide since the virus emerged the last December.