Turkey’s coronavirus death toll rose by 19 to 5,225 in the past 24 hours, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in a statement late Sunday, urging strict compliance with hygiene and social distancing guidelines.
The country’s daily new cases stood at 1,148, while almost 1,200 people recovered in the last 24 hours, according to figures shared by the minister on Twitter.
Koca especially warned residents of cities with the biggest rises in infections, including Istanbul and the capital Ankara, the northwestern city of Bursa, the central city of Konya, and the southern and southeastern cities of Gaziantep, Diyarbakır and Mardin.
The growing numbers are raising concerns that the easing of pandemic measures, which began last month, could be compromising efforts to contain the outbreak.
Meanwhile, a new survey by İpsos polling company has revealed that 58 percent of Turks are ready to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on condition that it is produced in Turkey.
Twenty-one percent of the participants said they would receive a vaccine produced in Europe, with the figure dropping to 14 percent if the vaccine is developed in South Korea or Japan, Diken news site reported on Monday.
Twelve percent of those surveyed gave a green light to a vaccine produced in Russia and only 10 per cent said yes to a Chinese-produced vaccine. Almost half of those surveyed, 48 percent, most of whom are university graduates, believe that COVID-19 is a human-manufactured virus.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has sent a circular on the subject of “Inspections within the Scope of Covid-81 Measures” to 19 Provincial Governorships. It was stated in the Circular that during the controlled social life period we are in, the general principles of combating epidemic, cleaning, mask and distance rules, as well as the measures to be taken for each field of activity / line of business, were determined separately and the activities were maintained within the framework of these rules and measures.
It was stated that 81 provincial governorships were instructed to regularly check whether the responsibilities regarding the rules and the precautions to be taken in the guides published and determined by the Coronavirus Scientific Board during the controlled social life period were fulfilled.
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