Erdogan threatens new restrictions if Turks flout 'voluntary quarantine'
Turkey's president continues to resist calling for a nationwide lockdown, but has admitted that stronger action will be needed if Turks don't stay home.
Turkey will tighten restrictions on daily life if the country’s coronavirus outbreak worsens because citizens didn’t follow the “voluntary quarantine,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.
Erdogan is under increasing pressure to impose a nationwide lockdown, which he’s so far resisted for economic reasons. Instead, he’s called on people to self-police and stay inside their homes except to shop for groceries or make emergency trips.
“Turkey is a country where production must continue and the cogs must keep turning under every circumstance and every condition,” Erdogan said in a Monday night address.
On Tuesday, Turkey confirmed 46 more deaths linked to the epidemic in what marked the deadliest day for the country since the virus was first reported in Turkey last month. Turkey, a nation of 83 million, has confirmed 13,531 cases of the novel coronavirus and a death toll of 214, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.
