Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today announced new restrictions including curfews on weekdays and full lockdowns over weekends to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
Erdogan said that a general curfew will be applied every weeknight from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays and starting from Friday, December 4 there will be full lockdowns for the whole weekend. Weekend curfews will start from 9 p.m. on Fridays to 5 a.m. on Mondays.
In addition, people 20 years old and younger, as well as seniors 65 and older, are barred from using public transportation.
Erdogan also added that restaurants will operate on a delivery-only basis.
The new restrictions will go into effect as of Tuesday, December 1, 2020.
Some sectors, including supply chain and production, will be exempt from the measures.
On November 20, Turkey had announced a partial weekend curfew from 8 p.m. to 10 a.m. and other restrictions nationwide to help stem the virus’ spread.
Turkey’s coronavirus patients reached 500,865 on Monday, November 30 as 6,514 new symptomatic cases were recorded over the past 24 hours.
The country reported a total of 31,219 COVID-19 infections, including the symptomatic ones, according to the Health Ministry. The count of fatalities, meanwhile, rose by 188, bringing the virus-linked death toll to 13,746.
