extended the curfew, which initially applied only to those 65 and older, to people twenty and younger. in a televised address on the same day, president erdoğan announced the measures that prohibit entries into and exit from turkey's largest cities, including the commercial hub istanbul for 15 days. on 6 april, the government announced building two new hospitals at the airport that can accommodate 2,000 patients. these hospitals will specialize in common life-support techniques, such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ecmo), for people with severe cases of covid-19. on the same day, to promote face-mask use, the government started sending masks to everyone by mail. on 10 april, the ministry of internal affairs announced curfew with just two-hours notice. this resulted in a foreseeable pandemonium, with residents lining up by bakeries, shops, and markets to stock up on essentials. following widespread criticism, minister of internal affairs soylu was forced to apologize and offer his resignation, which was rejected by the president. on 13 april, president erdoğan announced that curfews on weekends would continue but the restrictions were less stringent during the week, and many non-essential businesses, including construction sites remained open. on 23 april, turkey became the seventh country to report more than 100,000 coronavirus cases. may 2020: easing on restrictions social distance warnings in a mall's toilet. social distance stickers placed on the floor in the atm part of a shopping mall. i̇stiklal avenue and galatasaray, beyoğlu during the curfew on 30 may 2020 on 4 may, coronavirus scientific advisory board stated that public-health interventions—lockdowns and mask use—have led to major drops in caseloads, reducing the strain on emergency rooms and intensive-care units. explaining that the return to normal life will happen gradually, ministry of health stated that turkey has an opportunity to create and upgrade to permanently pandemic-resistant cities by subsidizing businesses to make ventilation upgrades to limit spread of viruses, tackling poor indoor air quality, which has long been a source of disease. state lawmakers' response to ministry of health's handling of the pandemic broke down along partisan lines. on 5 may, the opposition criticized the fact that businesses do not have clear triggers for when and how to shut down or reduce capacity in buildings. on 7 may, the government acknowledged that the social-distancing measures, including the closure of offices and schools, ban on mass gatherings were rolled out without knowing which measures would work. ministry of health stated that by relaxing restrictions gradually, it will be able to make more informed recommendations on social-distancing measures in the future. june 2020: reopening on 1 june, domestic flights were resumed and most public spaces were opened, including restaurants, swimming pools, beaches, parks, libraries and museums. turkish parliament resumes work after covid-19 hiatus, while wearing masks and keeping distance on 2 june, the turkish parliament resumed full activities for the first time in 48 days since a hiatus was declared due to the pandemic. the parliament started working under "new norms" including enhanced hygiene measures, use of masks and social distancing. july 2020: turkey opens for tourism in july, president recep tayyip erdoğan urged a rewrite of coronavirus scientific advisory board guidelines to discourage reporting asymptomatic people who test positive for sars-cov-2. over the objections of coronavirus scientific advisory board scientists, ministry of health started to publish incomplete coronavirus tally from 29 july. august 2020: turkey remains open for tourism gross domestic product shrank 11 per cent in second quarter, the largest decline ever published by the turkish statistical institute. the worst-affected sector was manufacturing, which contracted by 18%. on 30 august, mayors of istanbul and ankara ekrem i̇mamoğlu and mansur yavaş said that there was a mismatch between the statistics reported by ministry of health and the local data, and accused the national government of covering up the coronavirus resurgence. september 2020: further economic measures announced on 18 september, as part of statutory measures taken to counter the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the economy, a presidential decree extended the rule that limits corporations' dividends to 25% of their net profits in 2019. the rule, initially included in the turkish commercial code as provisional article 13 was to phase out on 30 september. october 2020: reintroduction of restrictions in october, official figures showed that 9.3 million people visited the turkey in the first eight months of this year, mainly from russia, the united kingdom, ukraine, germany and bulgaria, with 2.2m arriving in august. on 2 october, minister of internal affairs, following an advisory opinion of coronavirus scientific advisory board, instructed all provinces to prohibit holding large public meetings until 1 december 2020. november 2020: new lockdown on 20 november, ministry of health reinstated the curfew on people age 65 and older and people twenty and younger. on the same day, minister of internal affairs ordered businesses and places of worship to halt indoor activities. grocery stores and pharmacies have remained open, with legally imposed limits to capacity. on 30 november, official figures showed that gross domestic product expanded 15.6 per cent compared with the previous quarter, and 6.7 per cent compared with a year earlier. december 2020: rising death roll and assessment of coronavirus vaccines rate of vaccination by provinces (update 28 june 2021) on 6 december, ministry of health fahrettin koca announced that 50 million doses of coronavac should arrive by the end of february 2021, and 10 million doses of the pfizer–biontech covid-19 vaccine should start arriving still during december. on 7 december, pfizer and biontech finalized their submission to the turkish medicines and medical devices agency (tma), which has been reviewing data from the clinical trial on a rolling basis since october. the tma said it would recommend granting an emergency use authorization if it concluded "that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks in protecting against covid-19", based on the 2004 law that created the tma's process. on 10 december, the seven-day averages for three of the primary metrics (tests, cases, hospitalizations) were at record highs. earlier in the spring of 2020, during the first covid-19 surge in the turkey, the rising death toll reached a peak on 22 april, with a seven-day average of 122 daily deaths. in december, the seven-day average of deaths in turkey from covid-19 broke that record, at 255 on 29 december. on 13 december, tma pushed back formal assessments of two covid-19 vaccines, delaying distribution of the pfizer–biontech covid-19 vaccine and coronavac in turkey to the end of december. the tma said it planned to give an opinion on the pfizer–biontech covid-19 vaccine at a meeting on 29 december. tma has also delayed assessing the rival moderna vaccine until 12 january. january 2021: vaccination and the uk variant turkey detected 15 cases of the uk coronavirus variant on 1 january 2021. on 14 january 2021, turkish president recep tayyip erdoğan received the covid-19 vaccine. march 2021 at the beginning of march, the turkish government eased the restrictions, but the rates of infections rose to 21030. turkey has witnessed a very bad season of tourism due to the restrictions of the pandemic but bars and restaurants were allowed to reopen at half-capacity in provinces with lower infection rates. on 30 march, turkey said that it will reimpose lockdowns during weekends and restrictions during ramadan, and that is after confirming 37,303 new cases. april 2021 with the country's infection rate among the highest in europe, on 29 april 2021, turkey entered its first nationwide lockdown. february 2022 on february 5, 2022, turkish president recep tayyip erdogan and his wife, emine, have tested positive for covid-19. erdogan announced that they had been infected with the omicron coronavirus and were experiencing mild symptoms. government response child welfare and education on 12 march 2020, the ministry of national education announced that with the exception of schools catering to students with special needs, all schools in turkey would close starting on 16 march 2020. given the intense learning needs of students with disabilities, the ministry of national education announced that elementary-, middle- and high-school students with special needs will continue to have in-person attendance in fixed small groups, with adults rotating into the class, so as to facilitate contact tracing. the ministry of national education subsequently announced that teachers and staff in schools for students with special needs are able to opt out of in-person teaching if they or their families have a health risk. on 17 march, minister selçuk stated that a subset of teachers are focusing on content generation for the national online platform on trt eba tv, which became functional on 23 march 2020, with the rest of the teachers matched to students to provide individual assessment, coaching, and tutoring from 23 march to the end of the semester. after the ministry of national education announced the closure of all schools (except those catering to students with special needs) on 12 march 2020, the government acknowledged the impact of the closure of schools on the welfare of children. noting that children with preexisting mental-health issues or who live in non-supportive home environments are likely to suffer from being out of school, the government announced emergency measures, including fund increases for foster children, expansion of the nutrition assistance program, direct payments to families, and a national moratorium on evictions. to alleviate the social isolation of students, minister selçuk piloted a project on 27 march, where the ministry of national education started paying schools to offer small group activities for students on mondays and fridays, with deep cleaning sessions in between. economy throughout the pandemic, despite additional headwinds such as saudi bans on turkish goods, turkish economy has performed far better than that of many of the country's peers. the international monetary fund expects the turkish economy to contract by 3.6 percent in 2020, versus 5.3 percent in malaysia, 9 percent in mexico, 9 percent in greece, and 11.3 percent in argentina. turkey provided a boost to the economy in a series of historically large economic packages. in the ₺141 billion economic measures package, the parliament provided ₺500 billion ($63 billion) in forgivable loans to small businesses in part by raising the credit guarantee fund (kgf) limit; sent ₺1,500 checks to retired turks; and disbursed ₺2 billion as unemployment checks. unemployment peaked at 12.7% in 2020, and decreased to 11.9% following the economic expansion in the third quarter and job retention programs announced by the government. however, youth unemployment increased to 24.3%, meaning that the demographic least capable of bearing financial pain bore the majority of it. international aid countries that received medical supplies/aid from turkey during the pandemic, turkey has provided funds, doctors, dispatched medical equipment such as ppe, reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction testing kits, and other assistance to at least 55 countries. the dispatched medical equipment includes 1,300,000 n-95 masks and 300,000 reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction testing kits in april alone. by setting itself up as a provider rather than a recipient of aid, turkey portrayed itself as a valuable partner in combating the global spread of sars-cov-2. vaccination main article: covid-19 vaccination in turkey statistics data table covid-19 cases and deaths in turkey, nationwide () date confirmed cases deaths recoveries severe cases number of tests ratios new new total active new total new total serious new total positivity fatality 11 march 2020 1 — 1 1 0 0 0 0 — — — — — 12 march 2020 0 — 1 1 0 0 0 0 — — — — — 13 march 2020 4 — 5 5 0 0 0 0 — — — — — 14 march 2020 1 — 6 6 0 0 0 0 — — — — — 15 march 2020 12 — 18 17 1 1 0 0 — — — — — 16 march 2020 29 — 47 46 0 1 0 0 — — — — — 17 march 2020 41 — 98 96 1 2 0 0 — — 8,002 — — 18 march 2020 93 — 191 188 2 3 0 0 — 2,015 10,017 — — 19 march 2020 168 — 359 355 1 4 0 0 — 1,981 11,998 — — 20 march 2020 311 — 670 661 5 9 0 0 — 3,656 15,624 — — 21 march 2020 277 — 947 926 13 21 0 0 — 2,952 18,604 — — 22