Turkey reports over 30,000 new coronavirus cases

Turkey registered over 30,000 new coronavirus cases, while the number of recovered patients surpassed 409,000, Health Ministry said Tuesday.

According to the ministry, with 190 more fatalities the same day, the country’s death toll from the pandemic now stands at 13,936.

Health specialists carried out 180,312 COVID-19 tests across the country, pushing the national tally to over 18.7 million.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey reached 506,966 with 30,110 new infections, including 6,101 symptomatic patients.

Turkey’s filiation rate stands at nearly 100% while the number of seriously ill patients stands at 5,303.

The country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Tuesday that 4,593 coronavirus patients have recovered over the past day, bringing the total to 409,320.

"Let's not forget that mandatory or voluntary measures save lives. Let's follow the measures," Koca wrote on Twitter. "As long as the number of recoveries does not exceed the number of our new patients, the burden on the health care system will continue to grow,” he added.

Turkey has entered a nighttime curfew starting Tuesday as coronavirus cases show no sign of dwindling. It also extended the scope of weekend curfews, which were reintroduced two weeks ago after a long hiatus.

From Monday to Friday, people will not be allowed to go out between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., and the partial curfew imposed on weekend nights is now extended to daytime. A full-on curfew will be in place between 9 p.m. on Friday and 5 a.m. on Monday.

The measures come at a time when the overall tally of patients exceeded 500,000 on Monday and the death toll reached 13,746. Some businesses like grocery stores and bakeries will be exempt from curfews to prevent disruptions in supply chains. All other businesses, however, are ordered by the Interior Ministry to shut down at 8 p.m. every day.

Supermarkets, butchers and grocery stores will be open on weekends between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., and the public will be allowed to shop at the nearest such stores during the weekend curfew. Restaurants are also allowed to provide takeaway services between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. during the weekend curfews.

Citizens 65 and older and those 20 and younger are barred from using mass transit under the new measures. Those age groups were already subject to weeklong curfews except a few hours during the day.