Neighborhood head in eastern Turkey seals off village, bans entries due to COVID-19

The neighborhood head (muhtar) of the eastern village of İçmeler blocked off the entrance, and hung up a banner that reads "Entrances to the village are banned because of corona!" The muhtar also takes visitors' temperatures and only allows residents to enter.

Duvar English

The neighborhood head (muhtar) of the eastern village of İçmeler closed off the entrance to the village with chains and a banner that reads "Entrances to the village are banned because of corona!"

İçmeler Muhtar Güven Gedik is also sitting by the entrance to take visitors' body temperature and to make sure nobody who isn't a resident doesn't enter.

"We have villagers from here who live all across the country who want to come back," Gedik said. "If they do, we place them under 14-day quarantine and don't let them out of their homes."

Gedik noted that they have a large population of seniors and residents with chronic illnesses, which is why the community is being increasingly cautious.

Western Turkey village predicted to survive Mayan apocalypse struggles with  COVID-19 pandemicWestern Turkey village predicted to survive Mayan apocalypse struggles with COVID-19 pandemic