Turkey plans to order 4-day curfew as of Thursday to curb spread of COVID-19

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced a four-day lockdown from Thursday in Istanbul and 30 other major cities as part of measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

"We are planning to implement confinement between April 23-26 in 31 cities," Erdogan said Monday in a televised address to the nation.

Turkey has so far applied a 48-hour lockdown in 31 cities over the last two weekends but the country of 83 million has stopped short of declaring a long-term nationwide lockdown.

April 23 is already a public holiday in Turkey as it marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish parliament.