Turkey is planning to introduce new measures by mid-September to curb COVID-19 cases, as daily infections hit a before three-week high.
The country is considering to designate separate sections for the unvaccinated people in public institutions and closed areas like restaurants, cafes and libraries, as the need to enter indoor spaces will increase by the winter months, Hürriyet newspaper reported on Thursday.
Expanding the scope of areas where PCR testing is required for those who had not inoculated, including shopping malls and ending free PCR testing are also under discussion, in order to increase the vaccination rate in the country, it said.
The number of daily COVID-19 infections in Turkey climbed to 23,946 on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said. New deaths totalled 290, the highest since early May.
Cases climbed above 20,000 daily in late July, reaching the highest levels since April, after the government ended daily curfews and travel restrictions at the start that month. New cases numbered less than 5,000 per day in early July.
The country has vaccinated some 37.43 million adults with two doses, according to Health Ministry data. Turkey has a population of around 85 million people, meaning the number equates to some 44 percent of citizens.
In the EU, the full inoculation rate among all age groups stands at 58 percent, according to ourworldindata.org. Among adults, the rate has reached an average of 70 percent.
Ahval