Coronavirus

Turkish Ministry of the Interior declared a curfew for all 48 hours of the weekend on Friday at 10 PM. It came out of nowhere, and with two hours given until the start of the curfew, panic broke out among large groups of people and they flocked to supermarkets and gas stations in hordes, without any regard for social distancing. Ugly scenes were aplenty and members of the advisory board for the Ministry of Health voiced concerns that this would cause a huge spike in contagion rates.

Today, the unthinkable happened. The Minister of the Interior announced his resignation. This is the first time during the Erdoğan era that a minister has resigned. Turkey isn't used to people keeping themselves accountable for their errors and leaving posts, not only in politics but in any area where positions of power are involved. So this is a major, major surprise - probably only something like a pandemic could do. The Minister of the Interior wasn't just some random minister, either, he was one of the two most influential ministers in the country due to his role in counter-terrorism activities as well as his inflammatory, provocative language toward opposition leaders.

Edit: Erdoğan has apparently refused the Minister's resignation. It's a remarkable event, even if it doesn't follow through.
 
Last edited:
And in Belarus, President Lukashenko claimed that the best prevention includes sauna, vodka, and driving a tractor.
 
It could, of course, be explained by numbers for the preceding days being too low and thus the numbers for April 12 including cases that should've been counted earlier, but that's about the only explanation I can find.

And since the numbers from the preceding days are pretty much the same as you find from known sources, I would really like to know the source for that graph.
 
Last few days were holidays and many people probably didn't get tested.
 
Cancelled our Italy trip this summer (actually the airlines cancelled the flights and the alternate flights did not look appealing (many stops))

Plus pretty sure the concert will not be happening. Re-booked a trip to France (Normandy) after Christmas in the year for a vacation/anniversary trip.

Starting to think my summer trip will end up being a road trip and will try for Italy next year
 
Hey, not so pessimistic! I'm still hoping for a trip in late July and then a longer beach holiday in September.
 
I'm certain that all my trips this summer will be cancelled. At the end of next month I'm supposed to be going to Zurich for a weekend but even if restrictions are lifted here they might not be in Switzerland or Paris, where I will be changing trains. Then there's the two Iron Maiden-themed trips to Gothenburg and Barcelona. There's a greater chance of being able to travel to Barcelona than to Gothenburg given the one month difference between the two shows, but the tour is almost certainly going to be cancelled.
 
I'm just waiting for the announcement. I can't get refunds on my plane tickets yet either, annoyingly.
 
My only summer trip has been from the bedroom to the bathroom, to the kitchen, to the tv room, to the bathroom, back to the tv room, to the bathroom, to the kitchen, to the tv room, to the bath... you get the picture.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top