ISTANBUL — Turkey may introduce a full lockdown to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus if current measures to encourage social distancing fail to slow the outbreak that has claimed at least 59 lives, the interior minister said, while the mayor of Istanbul urged the government to declare a curfew in the country’s biggest city.

Fifteen more people died on Wednesday from COVID-19 and 2,433 have been infected in Turkey, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said late on Wednesday. Comparative data shows Turkey’s infection rate is among the fastest in the world.

Turkey has already shut some 200,000 businesses, closed schools through the end of April and may free up to a third of the prison population to counter the spread of the virus. Unlike much of Europe, authorities have stopped short of a total shutdown in what the government’s critics say is an effort to protect a shaky economy.

“Full social isolation is always on our agenda. We can step up restrictions if we aren’t able to counter this with the current measures,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told a television station when asked if a curfew was under consideration. “If we cannot get ahead of this epidemic with these measures, of course we will take the maximum measure.”