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Turkey recorded the highest number of deaths in a single day since the start of the coronavirus pandemic during which public health officials have said it is the third wave of the country’s outbreak.
The health ministry reported 362 deaths and nearly 62,000 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours on Wednesday. Turkey has the second largest number of new cases in the world after India.
Officials have blamed the new virus variants for the high infection rate. The Health Minister said that this week the intensive care units of hospitals in Istanbul, the largest city in the country which accounts for about 40% of cases, are in almost two-thirds of their capacity.
The increase comes when Turkey expanded its vaccination program this week to include people 55 and older. But the Turkish Medical Association, the largest professional group for doctors, said appointments are difficult to obtain “because it is obvious that there are not enough vaccines available.”
Vaccine doses of 20.6 million have been administered since mid-January, but just under 10% of the population has received both doses, according to data from the health ministry.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to avoid complete closures to protect the $ 717 billion economy, but last week he closed restaurants, finished most face-to-face school classes and extended overnight curfews and bosses. of the week.
In an attempt to keep their tourism industry afloat, foreign visitors are exempt from the curfew. The U.S. State Department raised its travel advice for Turkey and about 100 more countries for “not traveling” because of the severity of the outbreak.
The interior minister, who oversees the police force, said this week that he will show “no compassion” and will cancel the residence permits of foreigners residing in Turkey who break the curfew by posing as tourists. Turkish citizens caught violating the curfew will be fined about $ 360.
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