(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s police threatened face-mask producers with the seizure of their factories if they didn’t start selling their stock to the government by 8 p.m. Monday.
Authorities on Sunday carried out simultaneous raids on depots of some local producers that were stocking protective masks, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said told reporters early Monday. The producers were warned to immediately sign contracts with the Health Ministry, he said.
Turkey’s coronavirus deaths rose to 30 on Sunday as the number of infected patients climbed to 1,236, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. A total of 20,345 tests had been conducted so far, he added.
Other measures introduced recently include:
- Turkey shut down more than 165,000 businesses
- Turkey placed at least 10,750 people under quarantine, including some ambassadors and state officials of foreign countries
- Turkey allowed civil servants to work from home or to work in shifts
- Turk Traktor ve Ziraat Makineleri AS suspended production for 14 days at its two plants from Monday to contain the spread of coronavirus and due to disruptions in procurement and deliveries from Europe
- Three textile companies -- including Menderes Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret AS, Rodrigo Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret AS and Soktas Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret AS -- also halted production from Monday
- Police and local officials started to help with deliveries of food and medicine to homes of citizens older than 65 and those with chronic diseases