ANKARA, March 20. /TASS/. Turkey plans to allocate 100 bln Turkish liras (about $15.3 bln) to help citizens during the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the Turkish Presidential Administration’s Communications Director Fahrettin Altun stated in the early hours of Friday.
"Our government continues to take extraordinary measures to prevent the spread of the corona virus and to mitigate the economic impact of this ongoing threat. We announced a series of measures to help stimulate our economy and to provide liquidity in the markets," he wrote on Twitter.
"The 100 billion TL economic package will help our economy stabilize, take care of our people, support businesses in a time of unprecedented global challenge. We have already implemented many health safety measures to prevent the spread of this virus and we will continue to do so," the communications director added.
"By acting so swiftly and decisively, our government under our President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s leadership is determined to confront this challenge and ensure the well-being of our people. We will continue to work day and night, reassess the situation and take further measures accordingly," the spokesman concluded.
The first case of COVID-19 was reported in Turkey on March 10, when an infected local resident returned from Europe. According to the Health Ministry, there are 359 cases of the novel coronavirus in the country and at least four reported deaths.
The coronavirus outbreak was registered in central China in late December 2019. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic. COVID-19 infection cases have been recorded in more than 140 countries. According to the latest data, over 210,000 people have contracted the virus and about 8,500 have died.