Turkey says major auto factories to reopen by May 11

As Turkey eases coronavirus measures, all major automotive factories in the country will restart operations by May 11, the country's industry and technology minister said Tuesday.

"A large chunk of automotive factories have already restarted production," Mustafa Varank told an Ankara Chamber of Commerce online meeting.

He also said some textile firms are back in operation, and with the normalization of malls and export channels, this sector will recover fast.

After the worldwide spread of coronavirus from China, many factories had to halt production due to measures to stem the virus’ spread, such as lockdowns.

Varank added that Turkey will establish an additional lab in the capital Ankara to test for the virus, with a capacity of over 4,000 tests a day. To date the country has conducted 1.17 million tests.

As of Monday, Turkey registered a total of 3,461 deaths due to coronavirus, while 68,166 people have recovered from the disease. To date, the country has seen a total of 127,659 confirmed cases of the virus.

In recent days Turkey has seen the number of total recoveries from the virus top the number of cases to date.

More than 3.6 million cases have been reported in 187 countries and regions worldwide since the virus emerged the last December.