A medical worker helps a student wear face mask before she goes to the exam room in Ankara, Turkey, on June 20, 2020. Over 1.5 million secondary school students across Turkey took a high school entrance exam on Saturday amid a nationwide partial lockdown against the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)
ISTANBUL, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Over 1.5 million secondary school students across Turkey took a high school entrance exam on Saturday amid a nationwide partial lockdown against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following the recommendation of the Health Ministry's Scientific Committee, Turkish authorities earlier announced a partial curfew in 81 provinces from 9 a.m. local time (0600GMT) to 3 p.m. (1200 GMT) over the concerns of the spread of coronavirus due to the crowd.
Students and one of their family members were exempted from the lockdown.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said at a tweet that the curfew aimed to prevent people from forming crowd on streets during examination hours, and spare the day only for the youth.
Turkey reported 1,214 new COVID-19 cases and 23 more deaths on Friday, taking the tally of infections to 185,245, and the death toll to 4,905.
