Turkey lifted a 48-hour curfew as of midnight Sunday which had been imposed in 31 provinces to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The government imposed its second weekend stay-at-home order after the country’s first curfew was implemented on April 11-12.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced earlier that the measure would continue “as needed.”
The curfew was imposed in the capital Ankara as well as in Adana, Antalya, Aydin, Balikesir, Bursa, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mersin, Mugla, Ordu, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Tekirdag, Trabzon, Van and Zonguldak provinces.
Before the first curfew, 35% of the coronavirus cases in Turkey were among people 65 years old or older, while the percentage had since dropped to 18%, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Friday.
The coronavirus death toll in Turkey reached 2,017 as of Sunday, with 86,306 cases, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
Meanwhile 8 more Turkish nationals have died in Germany from the novel coronavirus, local authorities said Sunday.
Their deaths were reported in the cities of Hamburg, Nuremberg, Mainz and Stuttgart.
Some of those who died have no families or relatives and will therefore be buried in Germany.
The total number of Turks who have died in Germany from the virus now stands at 87.
More than 4,600 people have died from the coronavirus in Germany and over 145,100 cases have now been reported while 88,000 have recovered.
After originating in Wuhan, China last December, COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has spread to at least 185 countries and regions across the world, with Europe and the U.S. currently the worst hit.
The pandemic has killed nearly 165,000 people with total infections exceeding 2.39 million, while more than 611,800 have recovered from the disease, according to figures compiled by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.
