Turkey readies for 'new normal' after declaring success against coronavirus
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that a raft of restrictions imposed to curb the outbreak will be lifted next week as the country’s infection and death rates fall sharply.
ISTANBUL – Turkey is set to scrap a series of social-distancing restrictions imposed to curb the coronavirus outbreak, allowing for domestic travel to resume and a slate of businesses to reopen next week, as the rate of new infections and deaths slow dramatically, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.
The government appears keen to kickstart the economy quickly after a two-month interruption of economic activity that has hit Turkish manufacturing and all but stalled its services sector.
A total of 124,369 people have recovered out of the 160,979 people who contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter. On Thursday, another 1,182 people were diagnosed with the disease and 30 people died, bringing the death toll to 4,461 — far below other countries with similar caseloads.
Turkey introduced strict measures even before it became a Middle East hotspot for the coronavirus pandemic last month. But new infection rates have slowed to their lowest levels since March, soon after the virus reached Turkey, prompting a senior Erdogan adviser to tweet last week, “#MissionAccomplished.”
