Turkey to continue to protect citizens against COVID-19

ISTANBUL

Turkey will continue to protect its citizens from the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak with measures and economic support packages, the country's president said Wednesday.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan underlined that the country would earmark 7 billion Turkish liras ($1.08 billion) in support for workers with minimum wage.

The country will provide 1,000 Turkish liras ($155) to 2 million low-income families and increase the minimum pension to 1,500 Turkish liras ($233), Erdogan said.

The government announced it would recruit 32,000 new health sector professionals and provide up to 6 million liras (some $930,000) to firms that locally produce disinfectants, protective clothes, goggles and masks.

The ongoing pandemic has resulted in medical protective gear shortages around the world.

He added: "One million fast test kits [to fight against the virus] will come into use in a short period."

Turkey has 1,872 confirmed cases of the virus, with the death toll at 44, according to the Health Ministry.

The number of confirmed cases worldwide has now surpassed 438,700 while the death toll is over 19,600 and more than 111,800 have recovered, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

Despite the rising number of cases, most who contract the virus suffer only mild symptoms before making a recovery.