The number of coronavirus cases in Turkey rose to 47 on Monday, with 29 new cases confirmed, the country’s health minister said.
“All 29 recent cases are directly or indirectly related to the United States, the Middle East or Europe, while 3 cases have arrived from Umrah,” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter, according to Reuters.
“Contact with foreign countries will remain a risk,” Koca warned.
As part of efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Turkish Interior Ministry has ordered the immediate closure of a large variety of public places, effective as of midnight on Monday.
The ministerial order dispatched to all 81 provinces included all theaters, movie houses, exhibition centers, concert halls, wedding halls, restaurants with live music, cafés, shisha bars, cyber cafés, game arcades, indoor children’s playhouses, tea gardens, taverns, coffeehouses, theme parks, swimming pools, saunas, Turkish baths, spas and gyms.
The general assemblies of civil society groups, training organizations and all sorts of gatherings have been postponed.