ISTANBUL, May 4 (NNN-ANADOLU) — Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul, with a population of 16 million, spent Sunday under lock-down, in line with the government’s measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several on-duty officials, press members, and police forces were seen patrolling the city’s usually most crowded spots, while avenues, streets, and district centres were all deserted.
“We can say that Istanbulites this weekend have fully complied with the curfew,” a local journalist said. “The entire city was left to birds.”
Taking advantage of the curfew, city workers carried out several asphalt paving works on some streets and highways, the Istanbul municipality said.
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, earlier said, the government would continue to impose curfews on 31 provinces on weekends until the end of May.
This weekend, the restriction was three days as it coincided with International Labour Day, which was marked on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry announced that, it extended the travel restrictions for 31 provinces until Monday midnight.
The government will decide whether to pursue the limitation at a cabinet meeting, which will be chaired by the president the next day, the ministry said.
Turkish Health Minister, Fahrettin Koca, said, Turkey reported 1,670 new COVID-19 cases and 61 more deaths, during the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 126,045 and the death toll to 3,397.– NNN-ANADOLU
