ISTANBUL – New coronavirus cases continue to surge in Turkey, prompting state officials to reimpose weekend curfews during the month of Ramadan and reverse a normalization drive that had eased restrictions since March 1. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced new social distancing measures after a cabinet meeting Monday evening.

According to health ministry data, the rate of daily COVID-19 infections more than doubled nationwide over the last two weeks, from about 15,500 on March 15 to 32,400 Monday. During the same period, the number of virus-linked deaths also rose from 63 to 154 on March 29.

Taken together, the trends raised concerns among health experts and medical workers, who say the government’s reopening measures were premature and supported tighter restrictions to stop an ongoing surge in the country.

“The normalization drive came early and the vaccination campaign has not been rolled out fast enough,” Dr. Vedat Bulut, secretary general of the executive committee for the Turkish Medical Association, told Al-Monitor.

Since the start of the month, Turkish officials have moved to partially reopen restaurants and schools shuttered in the fall, while lifting weekend curfews in low-risk regions based on a tiered system that imposes stricter measures in areas with higher infection rates. The normalization efforts aim to help struggling businesses and lift the nation’s economy out of a pandemic slump, but the impacts have led to case increases in some regions.

The Black Sea province of Samsun has seen some of the nation’s steepest rises in new COVID-19 cases, surpassing 800 daily infections last week. Adding to health experts’ concerns, 90% of cases recorded in Samsun were found to come from the more transmissible UK variant of COVID-19, Bulut said, citing data gathered by the Turkish Medical Association.