One town and four villages in Turkey’s Black Sea province of Rize have been quarantined over the coronavirus outbreak, the local mayor said on Friday, in the first case of a lockdown in the country since the beginning of the outbreak two weeks ago, Reuters reported.
Alaettin Serdar, mayor of the town of Kendirli, said in an interview with state broadcaster TRT Haber the move was a precautionary one to prevent further spread of the illness after a patient in the town died of the virus on Thursday.
The death toll in Turkey due to the coronavirus jumped by 16 to 75 on Thursday, while the number of confirmed cases surged to 3,629 since the first case was reported on March 11.