ISTANBUL, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Istanbul, Turkey's worst-hit city by the COVID-19 pandemic, imposed on Tuesday new restrictions to control the spike in the daily cases.
All the museums, sports facilities, pools and cultural centers operating under the municipality would close their doors from Nov. 19, the Istanbul municipality announced in a written statement.
"Unfortunately, the outbreak tended to spread rapidly in our country, and even exceeded its effect in the March-April period," the statement said, noting the dimension of the restrictions might expand even further in the upcoming period.
Istanbul's mayor Ekrem Imamoglu earlier called for a complete lockdown for at least two weeks in the city of 16.5 million population to curb the surge of COVID-19 cases.
Imamoglu said Istanbul accounts for 50 percent of the total cases in Turkey, and the situation might get worse when the weather will get colder.
On Monday evening, Turkey's Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board recommended the government to implement concrete measures to slow the spread of the pandemic.
The government is expected to meet later to discuss possible preventive measures in line with the recommendation of the board.
Turkey previously ordered all businesses to close by 10 p.m. local time across the country and imposed a partial lockdown for those aged 65 and over in several provinces, including Istanbul and the capital Ankara. Enditem
