ANKARA

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 will enforce a full lockdown from Thursday evening until May 17 to stem the spread of the coronavirus, the country’s president announced.

Also, Turkey’s Health Ministry confirmed 37,312 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,716 symptomatic patients, in the last 24 hours.

The new infections pushed the overall caseload to over 4.6 million, including 38,711 related deaths, with 353 fatalities over the past day.

As many as 48,027 more patients won the battle against the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to more than 4.1 million.

Over 46.15 million coronavirus tests have been conducted thus far, with 268,893 done since Sunday.

The number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition is 3,563.

The production of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in Turkey will start in the coming weeks, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s president denounced US President Joe Biden’s “unfounded” statement on the events of 1915, saying it is “contrary to the facts.”

Addressing a news conference following a three-hour Cabinet meeting in the capital Ankara, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “US President Biden made a statement that is unfounded, unjust and contrary to the facts about the painful events that took place more than a century ago.”

Expressing his and the Turkish nation’s “immense” distress over Biden’s statement, Erdogan once more stated that the US president’s remarks “have no historical and legal basis.”

Turkish Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop rejected US President Joe Biden’s recent remarks labeling the 1915 incidents as “genocide.”

COVID-19 updates worldwide

India’s daily coronavirus cases hit another global record after the country registered 352,991 new infections, said the Health Ministry.

Kazakhstan started administering its homegrown COVID-19 vaccine.

Europe will allow fully vaccinated American tourists to visit EU countries this summer, according to the head of the 27-nation bloc in a report.

The European Commission sued pharma company AstraZeneca for the non-delivery of vaccines, said an EU official.

Spain is detecting an increasing number of potentially dangerous coronavirus strains, including its first case of a so-called “double mutant,” according to a document published by the Health Ministry.

England’s vaccination program was extended to people under the age of 50 as lockdown restrictions were further eased in Scotland and Wales.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said there are no plans yet to grant approval for the use of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Germany.

Colombia has seen a surge in coronavirus cases over the last few days, while deaths from COVID-19 have also reached an all-time high in the past week, with more than 400 people dying each day from the virus.

Other global developments

Chloe Zhao’s neo-western drama Nomadland won for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

At least 751 people have been killed since the Feb. 1 coup as Myanmar’s military continued to use brutal methods to quell anti-coup protests, said a local monitoring group.

Russia announced that it has expelled an Italian diplomat following an “unfriendly” move by Rome to remove two Russian diplomats in March over spying allegations.

Kenya announced that it has finally managed to contain the locust invasion that had rocked the East African country.

Albert Pahimi Padacke was appointed prime minister of Chad by the Transitional Military Council, a week after President Idriss Deby’s death in the battlefield.

The US population has reached 331,449,281, according to Census Bureau data.

Copyright 2022 Anadolu Agency. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.