ISTANBUL: Turkey's COVID-19 death toll rose above 30,000 on Sunday, while the cumulative number of cases topped 3 million, weeks after the country started easing restrictions, health ministry data showed.
The country recorded 102 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 30,061, according to the figures. It was the first time the daily tally has broken through the 100 mark since early February.
A total of 20,428 cases were recorded in the same period, raising the cumulative number of cases to 3,013,122.
Turkey began easing restrictions against the pandemic on a province-by-province basis in early March, at a time when the nationwide daily infection rate was below 10,000.
Cases have been rising in provinces across Turkey since then, but President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday no new restrictions would be imposed for now. He said he hoped people would follow existing restrictions.
Authorities have blamed the rise in infections on the new variants of the coronavirus.
The daily average of cases per 100,000 people in Istanbul rose to 251.12 as of March 19, and to 107.99 in Ankara, according to the data.
Those numbers compared with 89.9 in Istanbul and 39.84 in Ankara, both on Feb. 26.
Turkey, with a population of 83 million, has administered about 13 million vaccine doses in a campaign that began in mid-January. Nearly 8.02 million people have received a first shot and nearly 5.05 million a second dose of the vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech.
Turkey's COVID-19 deaths rise above 30,000, total cases top 3 million
https://arab.news/8ge4h
Turkey's COVID-19 deaths rise above 30,000, total cases top 3 million
- Authorities have blamed the rise in infections on the new variants of the coronavirus
- Turkey began easing restrictions against the pandemic on a province-by-province basis in early March
Israel says carrying out ‘large-scale strikes’ on Tehran
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it launched “large-scale strikes” on Tehran on Monday, two days since the start of a US-Israeli campaign against Iran.
“The Israeli Air Force... has begun an additional wave of strikes against the Iranian terror regime at the heart of Tehran,” the military said in a statement.
Israei's new “large-scale” strikes followed mile fire from Iran that injured three people in Jerusalem late on Sunday.
“A direct impact of a munition was identified on one of the main roads in Jerusalem,” police said in a statement, sharing footage showing officers at a highway section littered with rubble.
Israel’s emergency medical service Magen David Adom said three people were injured, including a 46-year-old man with moderate shrapnel wounds.
The medical organization earlier said several others were treated for light injuries at the site.
AFP journalists heard a series of loud blasts above the city, after the Israeli military said it had detected missiles launched from Iran.
Israel’s Kan public television and Channel 12 broadcast footage showing police officers and rescuers deployed in areas where visible damage could be seen, one “in the center of the country” and the other in the Jerusalem area.
In the Jerusalem area, the footage showed a road strewn with debris and rocks.
In the center of the country, damaged cars could be seen.
Military censorship prohibits the media from disclosing the exact locations of the impact sites.
In other developments:
• The European Union has warned of the cost to the Middle East of a long war, and said it was reinforcing its naval mission in the Red Sea with additional vessels as Iran’s retaliation to US-Israeli strikes threatens maritime traffic, a European diplomat said.
Two new French ships will join the EU’s Aspides mission, bringing to five the number of warships taking part, the diplomat told AFP.
• Gulf states vowed to defend themselves against Iranian attacks, including by “responding to the aggression” if need be, after the Gulf Cooperation Council convened via video-link to formulate a unified response.
• Top US officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio will make the case Tuesday to Congress for the attack on Iran. Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and military chief General Dan Caine “will brief the full membership of both chambers of Congress,” White House spokesman Dylan Johnson said.
• Container shipping company Maersk said it was halting passage through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz for “safety” reasons.
The Danish group was the latest of several shipping groups to make similar announcements after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared the strait closed on Saturday.
• Seven people were injured in the Jerusalem area following the latest salvo of missiles fired from Iran, Israeli firefighters said.
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had agreed to let the United States use UK bases to fire “defensive” strikes aimed at destroying Iranian missiles and their launchers. But in a video address posted to social media, he added: “We were not involved in the initial strikes on Iran and we will not join offensive action now.
• Iranian media reported that a police station in a city on the outskirts of Tehran had been hit, killing an unspecified number of people, with others reportedly trapped under debris. “According to initial reports, a number of citizens were martyred and some were trapped under the rubble,” the Tasnim news agency reported.
• Iranian news agency ISNA reported that Gandhi hospital in northern Tehran had been targeted by strikes. The Fars and Mizan agencies published a video, presented as being from inside the facility, showing debris on the floor among wheelchairs.
