Erdogan orders all events in Turkey postponed until end-April

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree on Friday postponing all events related to science, culture and the arts, as the country seeks to contain a surge in coronavirus cases.

Turkey’s Covid-19 death toll has reached four, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday. The number of confirmed cases in the country has surged since the first case was announced last week, reaching 359 on Thursday. The cases have roughly doubled every day since Sunday, Reuters reports.

Erdogan’s decree, published in the Official Gazette on Friday, said all meetings and activities, indoors or outdoors, related to science, culture, art and similar fields would be postponed until the end of April.

On Wednesday, the president said that Turks should stay home for at least three weeks, but did not ask them to stay away from work.