FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends a videoconference with G20 leaders to discuss the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Huber Mansion in Istanbul, Turkey, March 26, 2020. Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS
April 1, 2020
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey will have to take additional measures if the coronavirus outbreak grows and people don’t abide by a “voluntary quarantine,” President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.
“We won’t need further measures if all our citizens keep themselves in a voluntary quarantine. However, we may have to take much more advanced measures if the pandemic spreads and our citizens don’t stay at home,” Erdogan told a meeting of his AK Party provincial heads in a televised video conference.
Erdogan has stopped short of announcing a full lockdown across Turkey, mainly for economic reasons, despite growing pressure to do so after cases of coronavirus surged to more than 13,000 in just three weeks, with 214 deaths.
“We are determined to continue production and exports,” Erdogan said.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Dominic Evans)
