Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
Turkey’s health ministry on Saturday said that 41 more people have died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 4,096. The death rate is the lowest registered since the end of March.
Taking to Twitter, Minister Fahrettin Koca said that 1,610 new infections were confirmed, which makes the total number of cases 148,067 in the nation of 82 million people. More than 108,000 people have recovered, according to the statistics.
Fifteen provinces, including Istanbul, are on a four-day lockdown. The country has instituted partial lockdowns to combat the novel coronavirus. People under 20 and above 65 have been stuck at home for weeks though they are now allowed to leave for a few hours on allotted days.
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On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg held a phone conversation over the developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Turkey’s first lockdown was imposed at the weekend on April 11-12, followed by the second on April 18-19, and lastly, four days of curfew on April 23-26.
On May 5, the travel restrictions for seven cities has been lifted but the limitations for 24 other provinces, including Istanbul, would continue, according to the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Also Saturday, Turkey’s Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told private broadcaster NTV he hoped for domestic tourism to begin after May 28 if COVID-19 statistics continue on a downward trend.
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