ANKARA (AFP) – Turkey ordered citizens to stay at home for 48 hours across 31 cities starting midnight on Friday (April 10) as it rolled out new strict measures to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.

The interior ministry said in a statement the order would last until midnight on Sunday in dozens of cities, including the economic hub of Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

It said details would be published later.

Turkey has registered a total 47,029 cases of Covid-19 so far, most of them in Istanbul, home to over 15 million people.

Health minister Fahrettin Koca told a news conference in Ankara that 4,747 new cases had been reported in the last 24 hours and 98 people had died. That brings the total death toll in Turkey to 1,006.

More than 300,000 tests have been carried out in the 83-million strong country, according to the latest data.

Turkey has become one of the countries with the fastest rising number of recorded cases.

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