Turkey posted another record of 62,797 confirmed coronavirus cases on Wednesday.
The ministry also reported 279 deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest since the start of Turkey’s outbreak. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday announced a partial lockdown during the first two weeks of the Muslim month of Ramadan in a bid to curb the infection rate. He also warned of more measures to come if the number of cases fail to decrease.
The measures include bans on intercity travel, a return to online education, closing sports and leisure centers and expanding the length of night-time curfews.
The health ministry says Turkey is going through its “third peak” in infections and about 85% of the cases in the country can be traced to the variant first detected in Britain.
Turkey has registered more than 4 million cases, seventh highest in the world. Confirmed deaths stand at more than 34,000.
