Turkish Health Ministry refutes allegations about COVID outbreaks in resort areas

Turkey’s Health Ministry has refuted media allegations about coronavirus outbreaks in the country's resorts.

"Reports about coronavirus outbreaks in Turkey’s resort regions are not true. Growths of new cases were registered only in Ankara, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Konya, and Istanbul," TASS cited a ministry spokesperson as saying.

A number of Russian mass media outlets reported earlier citing Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca that outbreaks of the coronavirus infection had been registered in the country’s resort areas. The minister however spoke about the situation in the country in general.

On Wednesday, Koca expressed hope that celebrations of the Kurban Bayram holiday last week would not entail a surge in the coronavirus cases.

The first coronavirus case was confirmed in Turkey on March 10. By now, the coronavirus tally exceeds 236,000 cases. As many as 5,784 patients have died, and 219,506 have recovered.