Turkey announces stringent 'total lockdown' until May 17 over COVID surge

Turkey on Monday announced a stringent nationwide “total lockdown” until May 17 in a bid to suppress the mounting caseload of COVID-19 and increase in fatalities. Ankara’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Turkish reporters after a three-hour Cabinet meeting that he was implementing the drastic measure for the entire holy month of Ramadan, as well as three days of the Eid festival. The country scrambled to tighten the covid-safety measure shutting all businesses and issuing stay-at-home advisory as it registered 37,312 new COVID-19 infections and 353 deaths within the last 24 hours, according to the health ministry’s official data. Turkey now carried the world’s fourth-largest caseload of the coronavirus. 

In an official announcement, the Turkish government said in a statement that it was imposing full lockdown, which it described as pandemic’s strictest yet, effective 16:00 GMT on Thursday and will ease it at 02:00 GMT on May 17. All businesses, without exception, must remain shut, Erdogan announced, adding unless permitted by the country’s interior ministry. Businesses in the field of agriculture, health care, and hygiene were operational under the essential services exemption the government said. Supermarkets were allowed to be operated only on Sundays, and all schools were ordered to shut down and switch classes to online. Turkish President warned about the intercity travel as he asked citizens to adhere to the protocol citing the spike in a death toll that has remained well over 300 since the last week.

“There will an uninterrupted restriction on going outside between these dates,” Erdogan said in an announcement, according to the AP. Exceptions were expected to be announced for shopping, hospitals or doctors and essential duties. Turkey updated the advisory from the previously instructed stay at home protocol that was effective only on evenings, weekends and public holidays.

[A view of central Istanbul, late Monday, April 26, 2021. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the country's strictest pandemic restrictions. Credit: AP/File]

'Country will pay a heavy price,' warns Erdogan

Making appeals to the citizens across all states, Turkey’s President said that the strict measure was the “need of the hour”. He said that the nation would “pay a heavy price” if all movement wasn’t halted. It would suffer Turkey’s tourism, trade and education in unimaginable ways, Erdogan told Turkish reporters. “At a time when Europe is entering a phase of reopening, we need to rapidly cut our case numbers to below 5,000 not to be left behind. Otherwise, we will inevitably face heavy costs in every area, from tourism to trade and education,” Erdogan stressed. Thus far, the country has been lagging behind in its vaccination drive, administering jabs to just eight million of the total population.