Turkey ends nationwide 31-hour coronavirus curfew

By Hamdi Celikbas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey ended a nationwide 31-hour curfew early Monday aimed at helping stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Turkey is imposing a curfew from 10 p.m. (1900GMT) to 5 a.m. (0200GMT) on weekdays and Saturdays and a full lockdown on Sundays until July.

Turkey started a gradual normalization process on May 17 after a 17-day lockdown that significantly brought infections in the country down.

Until June 1, the country enforced weeknight curfews from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., while weekends were under full lockdown.

Turkey has so far administered over 30.69 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to official figures released Sunday.

Around 17.60 million people have received their first doses, while over 13.1 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry's count showed.

The ministry also confirmed 5,386 new coronavirus cases, including 482 symptomatic patients, across the country in the last 24 hours. The number of new cases on Saturday was 6,126.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.28 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 48,164 with 96 new fatalities, down four from a day earlier.

Since December 2019, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 3.72 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 173.08 million cases reported worldwide, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University.