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Turkey tightens restrictions to curb coronavirus outbreak

As the death toll from COVID-19 reached 37 and cases spread across the country, Turkey pledged to accelerate diagnostic and treatment methods, while introducing new measures to keep people at home, though it has stopped short of a full lockdown.
A worker sprays disinfectant outside Ortakoy Mosque, to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Istanbul, Turkey, March 23, 2020. REUTERS/Umit Bektas - RC2MPF983853

ISTANBUL — Turkey introduced additional restrictions today to keep people at home and contain the coronavirus outbreak as the number of confirmed cases mounted rapidly and spread throughout the country. The government also pledged to ramp up diagnostic testing, production of ventilators and efforts to find a vaccine.

Seven people died from COVID-19 Tuesday, raising the death toll to 44, and the official number of cases has reached 1,872, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter. At a news conference on Monday he said cases have been recorded “across all of Turkey” and acknowledged that local transmission of the virus now exceeds direct or indirect infection from overseas.

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