Ankara, 1 August: Turkey has begun celebrating the Muslim of Eid al-Adha amid social estrangement measures opposed to COVID-19.
The Turkish government did not impose additional restrictions on Eid al-Adha, however, officials suggested to the public that it strictly enforce social estrangement regulations, for fear that the social interactions of the holidays will lead to an increase in the number of new cases of coronavirus, an Xinhua news firm. reported Friday.
Turkey holds the festival from 31 July to 3 August. It is a Muslim culture of sacrificing farm animals to commemorate the occasion. The local government handed out loose, disposable prayer mats, disinfectants, masks, and water to others attending prayers in mosques.
The country has experienced a strong trend in the numbers of new COVID-19 cases in weeks.
Turkey showed on Friday 982 new cases of COVID-19, while the total number of cases diagnosed increased to 230873, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.
Meanwhile, another 17 people have died in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 5691, Koca tweeted.
Turkish fitness professionals conducted 46,492 tests in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of tests to 4,800,823, he said.
A total of 996 patients have recovered in more than 24 hours, bringing overall recovery to 214,535 in Turkey since the outbreak, Koca added.
The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients is 8.8% and the number of critical patients is 582, he said.
“There is a minimum in our pneumonia rate, but an increase in the number of newly diagnosed patients,” the minister said.
Turkey notified the first case of COVID-19 in March.
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