Turkey’s novel coronavirus cases came late, but once they started, they rose quicker than anywhere else in the world.
Less than a month ago, the nation of 80 million people didn’t have a single reported case.
Three days ago (April 10) Turkey had 42,282 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 908 deaths. There are fears it could be the next pandemic hotspot as the infections increase by 3,000 every day.
Turkey has imposed restrictions like closing schools, universities, and cafes, and stopping prayers, and halting flights to particular countries. But the restrictions have been incremental, and even with cases continuing to rise, a nationwide lockdown has not been imposed.
It has a booming tourism industry with about 50 million visitors in 2019.
It already has high unemployment, inflation, and the looming possibility of a recession due to a massive fall in its currency in 2018.
The country also had a weakened healthcare sector. After a failed coup in 2016, Turkey’s government blacklisted about 15,000 health care workers, as well as a coronavirus expert named Mustafa Ulasli, who was allegedly linked to the coup.