By Seda Sevencan
ANKARA (AA) – Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic and other news in Turkey and around the world.
– Coronavirus and other developments in Turkey
Turkey on Monday reported 9,891 new coronavirus cases, including 645 symptomatic patients.
With the new cases, the country's overall caseload crossed 2.71 million, including 28,638 related deaths, according to the Health Ministry.
While 69 people died over the past 24 hours, as many as 5,947 won their battle against the disease, bringing the number of recoveries to over 2.57 million.
As Turkey’s vaccination campaign continues apace, an easing of coronavirus restrictions will begin based on conditions in individual provinces, the president announced Monday night.
Weekend curfews, in place since December, will be lifted in low- and medium-risk provinces, while restrictions on Sunday will continue “for a while” in provinces classified as high risk or very high risk, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after a Cabinet meeting at the presidential complex.
Face-to-face education will start in low- and medium-risk provinces of Turkey, including in middle and high schools," he added.
Erdogan also said that all preschool education institutions across Turkey as well as elementary schools and grades 8 through 12 will resume in-person classes.
Having administered 9 million coronavirus jabs, Turkey is among five countries worldwide that have vaccinated 10% of their populations, Erdogan said.
– COVID-19 updates worldwide
Germany's top intensive care expert has urged the government to extend the country’s current lockdown for at least another three weeks amid growing fears over coronavirus mutations.
The number of deaths and infections caused by the novel coronavirus continues to fall across the UK, despite rising concerns over the introduction of the Brazilian variant to the country.
As case numbers continued to drop across Spain, Valencia became the last Spanish region to reopen bars and restaurants Monday.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Monday gave her thumbs-down to a possible weekend coronavirus lockdown in the capital city, warning how such a measure would affect people already hard hit by virus measures.
The number of coronavirus cases in Africa reached 3,897,390, said the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in its update on Monday.
– Other global developments
Protesters stormed a government building in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Monday.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced Monday to three years for corruption and influence peddling in an infamous eavesdropping case, but his sentence is unlikely to involve actual jail time.
Zimbabwe’s Vice President Kembo Mohadi stepped down Monday, battered by reports of a scandal involving illicit sexual relations.
The US on Monday said it has urged Saudi Arabia to disband a unit of its Royal Guard that answers directly to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and was implicated in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
An Israeli military court jailed a prominent member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) for two years, a Palestinian Rights group said Monday.
