Turkey lifted a 48-hour curfew as of midnight Sunday which had been imposed in 31 provinces to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The government imposed its second weekend stay-at-home order after the country’s first curfew was implemented on April 11-12.
CURFEW ORDER HELPS CORONAVIRUS CASES TO DROP
The curfew was imposed in the capital Ankara as well as in Adana, Antalya, Aydin, Balikesir, Bursa, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mersin, Mugla, Ordu, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Tekirdag, Trabzon, Van and Zonguldak provinces.
Before the first curfew, 35 percent of the coronavirus cases in Turkey were among people 65 years old or older, while the percentage had since dropped to 18 percent, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Friday.
The coronavirus death toll in Turkey reached 2,017 as of Sunday, with 86,306 cases, according to the country’s Health Ministry.