Good Party's Akşener tests negative for coronavirus amid fears

Good Party (IP) leader Meral Akşener on Monday announced that despite the discovery that an aid working from home had been infected by the coronavirus, tests showed that she had steered clear of infection.

“My aid at home has been infected by the coronavirus. We also made tests. The result was negative. We were highly worried, but luckily we are fine,” Akşener told Sözcü Newspaper.

Akşener was in the province of Tekirdağ when the first case of the coronavirus in Turkey was announced, whereupon she returned to Ankara.

“When we returned to Ankara we were tested together with my close team with the direction of the party’s health council. The results were negative. Since then, I have mostly stayed at home,” she said.

Underlining that she was following the social distancing rules strictly, Akşener said: “My husband does the shopping, he also puts emphasis on social distancing and hygiene rules. But a few days ago there was an incident. My aid, who has been working at our home in an official capacity for 20 years, started to show signs of the coronavirus. She was brought to the hospital, and her test results came back positive. We also tested again, but our results are negative,” Akşener elaborated.

Turkey has taken a series of measures to try to limit the spread of the new coronavirus, from closing schools, quarantining around 50 towns and areas and imposing a 24-hour curfew for people 65 or older.

The country rolls out a new measure almost daily. Local governors were tasked by the government to take measures specific to each province, from limiting entry to cities to expanding social distancing orders.