Turkish lira stood at 6.5020 against the dollar, weakening from 6.4825 on Wednesday, losing 8.5% of its value this year.

The main BIST-100 index of shares also dropped to 85,130 points.

"In addition to many dimensions of a process like this, in which daily life has almost come to a halt due to the practices of voluntary or compulsory quarantine, it will have severe economic consequences," Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a press conference.

"The important point here is to demonstrate the capacity to overcome both the virus in medical terms and its psychologic and economic affects, without giving the disease any chance to beat us. I trust in you on that and I believe we will overcome it together," Erdoğan added. (ILKHA)