Turkey extends 15-day travel ban in 15 major cities

Turkey officially extended a travel ban in 15 major cities for 15 more days due to the pandemic, according to Interior Ministry on Tuesday.

In a statement, the ministry said the travel ban will continue between May 20 and June 3 and those who do not comply with the travel restrictions will be imposed administrative fines.

The ministry added that air, land, and sea travel to and from these provinces will be restricted.

The cities with the travel ban include Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Balikesir, Bursa, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Manisa, Sakarya, Samsun, Van, and Zonguldak.

Earlier in April, Turkey imposed the country’s first travel ban across 31 provinces to stem the spread of the virus and later lifted some of them.

As of Monday, Turkey registered a total of 4,171 deaths due to coronavirus whereas 111,577 people have recovered from the disease. Currently, there are 150,593 confirmed cases in the country.

After originating in China last December, COVID-19 has spread to at least 188 countries and regions. Europe and the US are currently the worst-hit regions.

The pandemic has killed nearly 320,000 people worldwide, with over 4.82 million confirmed cases, while recoveries neared 1.8 million, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

* Writing by Handan Kazanci in Istanbul