ANKARA, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday announced a new set of measures against the COVID-19 outbreak, including partial lockdowns on weekends, as the government struggles to control the increasing number of cases in Turkey.

The government will impose lockdown at the weekends in a way that supply and production chains will not be interrupted, Erdogan said at a press conference after the cabinet meeting.

The restrictions, which already prevented people over 65 years old from going out at certain hours, will also be introduced to those under 20 years old, he said. The students will return to distance learning and all schools will remain closed until end of this year.

Restaurants and cafes will only serve for delivery, while movie theaters will be closed till the end of 2020. All sports competitions will be played without spectators.

"If the increasing trend of the outbreak continues, it will be inevitable that the measures, which resulted in painful outcomes for all of us, will be back on the agenda," the president said.

The Turkish government had started gradually easing the restrictions against the novel coronavirus in June, but it re-introduced the measures again due to the rising number of cases since this summer.

Turkey's advisory science board has recommended concrete measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Monday.

Turkey's COVID-19 patients increased by 3,819 on Tuesday, raising the total number in the country to 421,413, the Turkish Health Ministry announced.

Meanwhile, 103 people died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 11,704.

A total of 2,688 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, raising the total recoveries to 359,063 in Turkey since the outbreak.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients is 3.8 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 3,657.

A total of 156,692 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests reaching 16,464,678.

Turkey reported the first COVID-19 case on March 11. Enditem

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