Curfews to be abandoned, cafes and restaurants to serve with no limitation on guest number in indoor, outdoor areas

Turkey on Sunday announced further easing of COVID-19 restrictions from July 1 as part of a gradual normalization from the outbreak.

According to a circular issued by the Interior Ministry, curfews will be fully scrapped and intercity travel restrictions will end as of Thursday.

All workplaces and cinemas, which have suspended their activities as part of coronavirus measures, will reopen.

Cafes and restaurants will serve people with no limitation on the guest number in indoor and outdoor areas.

Restrictions and measures in accommodation facilities will end, with hygiene, mask, and social distancing rules still to be followed.

Outdoor wedding ceremonies will be held without a guest limit and food/drink can be served, while some restrictions are still in place for indoor ceremonies.

Events such as concerts, festivals, and youth camps will be allowed provided that the previously set rules are followed.

Parks, gardens, picnic, and camp areas will be open to the public.

Besides, mandatory quarantine for travelers from Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka and those who have been in these countries in the last 14 days will end.

The mandatory quarantine period for people arriving in Turkey from Afghanistan and Pakistan or who have been in these countries in the last 14 days will be reduced to 10 days.

On Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey is set to end pandemic curfews as of July 1 amid a nationwide fall in COVID-19 cases.

On June 1, the country eased some measures following a 17-day strict lockdown.

Turkey has administered over 47.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to official figures released on

More than 32.4 million people have received their first doses, while over 14.8 million have been fully vaccinated, showed the Health Ministry count. Sunday.

It also confirmed 4,883 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 390 symptomatic patients.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.4 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 49,576 with 52 new fatalities.

As many as 5,937 more patients won the battle against the virus, taking the number of recoveries past 5.2 million.

Over 60.1 million coronavirus tests have been done to date.

The latest figures put the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition at 736.

The country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Twitter also announced the number of vaccines administered across the country while adding that at least 54 percent of adults over 18 in Turkey vaccinated with at least a single dose of a COVID jab.

On Tuesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also unveiled Turkovac, the country's homegrown COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which has entered Phase 3 clinical trials.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.9 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 180.8 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.