Coronavirus has cost 2 million jobs in Turkey, opposition says

ANKARA, April 3 (Reuters) - More than two million workers in Turkey have lost their jobs due to measures taken to contain the coronavirus outbreak and the government needs to do more to support them, the main opposition party said on Friday.

President Tayyip Erdogan's government has ordered retailers, restaurants and other businesses to close but has not imposed a full lockdown, as the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has requested.

CHP Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu said around 400,000 businesses had closed over the measures, which had also left many workers paid wages day by day, such as school bus drivers and barbers, unemployed.

"The number of those who worked there and are now unemployed exceeds 2 million. They will get unemployment wages from the unemployment fund for a short time, but there are no guarantees after that," he told Fox TV in an interview.

The first official data showing the impact of the epidemic on Turkey's workforce will not be published until May, when March unemployment figures are released.

To date COVID-19 has killed more than 350 in the country, with confirmed cases topping 18,000.

Ankara has also rolled out a 100-billion lira ($15 billion) support package for the economy and launched a donation campaign to gather funds for the needy, which the directorate of communications said overnight had raised 847 million lira.

"We urged the government to take precautions for dayworkers. No measures were taken," Kilicdaroglu said, adding the AK Party government had to "make sacrifices" instead of launching a donation campaign.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and John Stonestreet)