Erdogan Uses Thermal Camera to Keep Coronavirus Away

(Bloomberg) --

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using a thermal camera in public to keep people with fevers away after the country confirmed its first case of coronavirus.

Erdogan had already stopped shaking hands with the public days earlier as the epidemic gripped neighbors including Iran, the hardest-hit nation after China and Italy. On Wednesday, staffers monitored the crowds around Erdogan during his visit to parliament through a mobile thermal camera that picks up body heat and can detect fevers, Turkish media reported, saying the practice will continue.

Turkey’s first coronavirus case was identified late Tuesday. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Wednesday that the patient had contracted the virus in Europe and his family was also being monitored for possible infection.

In response, Turkey announced a series of measures to stop the virus from spreading, including:

• Vacations for all health personnel have been canceled
• Turkey wants to curb tourism and attract “fewer” visitors from abroad until around mid-April
• All “domestic exhibitions” through April 16 have been canceled
• Turkey won’t allow exports of masks or other medical equipment the public may need if there’s a major outbreak until its domestic market is fully supplied

The spread of the disease to Turkey sent shares in sports clubs and airlines down in Istanbul trading. Listed supermarket chains climbed on expected hoarding of food items and household goods.

Turkey’s Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoglu said no ban on spectators at events is foreseen “at the moment.”

“If authorities announce measures such as football matches without spectators, or ban matches altogether, revenues of these companies would be hit,” Tera Securities analyst Enver Erkan said by phone.

Turkey has a population of 83 million people and also hosts the world’s largest refugee population with about 5 million people, most of them Syrians who’ve fled their country’s civil war.

It had already barred all passenger flights with Italy, South Korea and Iraq, and started screening passengers arriving from abroad.

To contact the reporters on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara at shacaoglu@bloomberg.net;Firat Kozok in Ankara at fkozok@bloomberg.net;Taylan Bilgic in Istanbul at tbilgic2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams

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