ISTANBUL (Reuters) — President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Turkey had lost some ground in its battle with the coronavirus but a focus on hygiene, masks and social distancing will protect people and help the economy rebound in the second half of the year.

“The numbers in recent days show that we have lost our position in the fight against the epidemic”, Erdogan said in a televised address. “But we aim to remove the pandemic from our agenda by respecting the cleaning, mask and distance rules.”

Health and government officials have told Reuters a harder line on social distancing may be adopted even while they said there is no plan to slow the economy, which emerged this month from a near standstill since mid-March.

Most economists expect Turkey’s economy to contract this year.