People wearing face masks walk past a graffito depicting a smiley face with a face mask in Ankara, on September 7, 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic. (AFP)
The total number of coronavirus cases in Turkey rose above 300,000 on Saturday, the health ministry said, as authorities struggle to contain a resurgence in the outbreak.
The ministry said there were 1,538 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 301,348. The death toll rose by 68 to 7,445.
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President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday the government needs to ramp up measures to curb the rise in cases, which has also prompted protests from doctors who say official data underplays the scale of the outbreak.
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Doctors across Turkey wore black ribbons this week to commemorate colleagues who have died, part of protests which also included a social media campaign with a message for the government: “You can't manage it; we are exhausted.”
Many doctors question the official COVID-19 numbers, saying that although they don't have their own independent nationwide data, the scale of cases they see at a local level does not tally with the bigger picture presented by the government.
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