Turkish doctors call for lockdown during Ramadan

A surge in the cases of Covid-19 has compelled Turkey’s President, Tayyip Erdogan, to announce renewed restrictions, such as weekend lockdowns and the closure of cafes and restaurants during Ramadan.

Turkey has posted record daily numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases for the past 10 days, including 55,941 new infections reported late Thursday.

In a bid to minimize the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the Turkey’s economy, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eased infection-control measures in early March.

Turkish medical groups say the reopening in March was premature and that the new measures won’t go far enough to curb the surge.

They have called for a full lockdown during the holy Muslim month, effective from April 13.

“Every single day the number of cases is increasing. Every single day the number of death is increasing. The alarm bells are ringing for the intensive care units,” Ismail Cinel, head of the Turkish Intensive Care Association, said.

New York Parrot reported that the Health Ministry has announced that not less than 75% of the recent infections in Turkey involve variant first identified in Britain.

“We have unfortunately loosened the measures and were not able to accelerate vaccinations,” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

Commenting about the hospital situation, Koca said, “There is no problem for now. But if this continues for three or four weeks, it will be a problem.”

Turkish opposition parties, however, lamented that the surge was as a result of the mass political rallies organized by Erdogan’s ruling party.