Turkey launches National Solidarity Campaign to fight coronavirus

Turkey's president on Monday launched a National Solidarity Campaign to aid the fight against the novel coronavirus, donating his salary for seven months to the initiative.

"I am launching the campaign personally by donating my seven-month salary," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in his address to the nation.

Cabinet members in the government and politicians have together donated $791,000 to the campaign, he added.

He underlined that the aim of the campaign would be to provide additional support to low-income people suffering economically due to the measures taken against the spread of the disease.

Following the president's announcement, Nationalist Movement Party's leader Devlet Bahceli also contributed five months' worth of his salary to the campaign.

Turkey-based commerce offices, parliamentarians and public figures also joined the campaign.

Coronavirus vaccine

Erdogan stressed that Turkey enjoys better medical facilities compared to other countries fighting the virus, saying, "Turkey is rapidly opening new hospitals while also strengthening the existing ones."

He also said efforts are underway by Turkish experts to produce respiratory devices and a vaccine for the virus.

"Our goal is to reach serious results by the end of the year," he added.

Quarantined regions

"We are determined to use all means to curb the spread of the virus," he said, stressing that the country now is able to conduct more than 10,000 tests per day.

Some 41 neighborhoods and villages are under quarantine in the country, he said, calling on the public to self-quarantine in their homes.

He also pointed out that Turkey did not face any problems concerning its food supply, and that it had a surplus in agricultural production.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases surged to 10,827 in Turkey as 1,610 more people tested positive for the virus, according to the Health Ministry.

A total of 162 patients have recovered and were discharged from hospitals since the beginning of the outbreak, according to data released on Monday, which showed that 725 patients were being treated under intensive care.

The novel coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China in December. 

There are currently more than 776,000 cases worldwide and over 37,100 reported deaths with more than 164,000 recoveries, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University.