Turkey enters weekend lockdown as Europe grapples with virus

As several countries in Europe continue to be in various stages of lockdown, Turkey's capital entered its first full weekend lockdown since May amid growing coronavirus cases.

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Turkey recorded 32,736 new COVID-19 cases as the virus continues to surge in the country. The death toll due to the virus in Turkey rose to 193 with the total number of fatalities rising to 14,509.

President Erdogan had earlier announced the full weekend lockdown including a curfew on weekdays in order to minimise the impact on the economy.

Europe which has been hit the hardest due to the virus witnessed a surge in cases last month even as several countries began lifting the strict lockdown measures imposed earlier ahead of the busy Christmas season.

The Austrian government has undertaken mass testing programme to help the country safely emerge from the second coronavirus lockdown.

The Austrian government informed the second lockdown had at least some effect in infection cases with new COVID-19 cases going down from 4,954 last week.

Like Austria, Slovenia announced mass nationwide testing to begin from December 11 or 12 as the country took steps to come out of lockdown last month.

Belgium is also currently under lockdown until December 13 even as shops open gradually with restaurants expected to stay closed until January.

In Greece, PM Mitsotakis faced a severe backlash over a mountain bike trip which deemed to have violated the government's strict lockdown measures. Greece has imposed lockdown till December 14 after enforcing it on November 7.

At least 2,800 people have died of the virus in Greece as it continues to grapple with the virus.