Turkey hits record COVID-19 death toll 7 days in a row

Turkey recorded a record number of COVID-19 deaths for the seventh consecutive day on Sunday as cases surge in a second wave of the pandemic.

The nation recorded 185 coronavirus-related fatalities Sunday, a number 45 percent higher than the highest documented death toll during the first wave in April, Reuters reported. 

Turkey documented more than 29,000 new cases on Sunday after a record of 30,103 new cases on Saturday. The country’s new case numbers are only behind the U.S., India and Brazil, which all have higher populations than Turkey. 

Turkish authorities only began including asymptomatic cases in the country’s case count on Wednesday, while other countries had previously included those who test positive but show no symptoms. 

Officials instituted stricter coronavirus restrictions a week ago, including curfews on the weekends, limits on the movements of people of non-working age, transfers to online school and bans on restaurants serving people in-person, according to Reuters. 

But in the week since the restrictions, coronavirus deaths and cases have continued to surge. 

Health experts and those opposing President Tayyip Erdoğan are arguing that more restrictions are needed, but officials are hesitant after the earlier lockdowns debilitated the economy, specifically stores, restaurants and hotels.  

Erdoğan told reporters on Friday that the rise in cases could be traced to people not following the government COVID-19 rules. 

“Masks and (social) distance are very important, hygiene is very important,” he said. “As long as these are not heeded, especially in big cities, the increasing continuation of (the virus) becomes inevitable.”

Overall, Turkey has documented 607,628 COVID-19 cases and 13,558 fatalities, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.