Turkey introduces new regulations amid normalization

Turkey revised Monday coronavirus measures for the normalization from the outbreak.

An official letter by the Health Ministry, which was sent to governors' offices in 81 provinces as well as all health institutions of Turkey, said that some of the restrictions that had been implemented due to the outbreak are partially or totally lifted.

According to the new rules, patient visits will be allowed for one person to meet the needs of the inpatient and the visit will be paid after working hours. Visits are not allowed in intensive and palliative care units.

On condition of complying with the rules set up by the ministry, patients in child and newborn sections will be visited once a day if they are not diagnosed with COVID-19. Those who are COVID-19 positive will be visited upon permission by the doctor and with necessary precautions taken.

- Health workers allowed to take leaves

A letter previously prohibiting health workers to take leave or quit their jobs, which was placed in March due to the need for them during the fight against the pandemic, was also annulled.

According to the new regulation, health personnel are allowed to go on leaves or quit job as of Monday.

On Sunday, Turkey confirmed 2,647 more recoveries from the coronavirus, taking the total number of recoveries to over 137,900.

As the number of infections slowed down and death toll stay low, Turkey decided to enter the normalization process from the outbreak, which first appeared in China last December.

Since then, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions.

The US, Brazil, Russia, the UK and India are currently the hardest hit in the world.

The pandemic has killed over 403,000 people worldwide, with more than 7 million confirmed cases and over 3.14 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

*With contributions and writing by Sena Guler