Turkey to reimpose nationwide lockdown from April 29 to May 17

Amidst efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus, Turkey has decided to reimpose a nationwide lockdown with stricter measures from Thursday (April 29) until May 17, the President Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday.

The new measures include closure of dine-in services at cafes and restaurants, limiting services to home delivery, state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) reported. Supermarkets will remain closed on Sundays. Intercity travel is restricted while public transport cut down its operational capacity to 50 percent. Educational institutions including schools, kindergartens and nurseries will depend on remote learning with all exams postponed.

Commercial outlets are asked to shut down. However, the new restrictions do not apply to the manufacturing, agriculture, health care and food sectors, Erdogan stated.

The President added that the country aims at bringing number of infection rates to below 5,000 following the steep hike in infections and covid-related death rates subsequent to relaxations in restrictions in March.

On the other hand, foreign tourists are exempted from the lockdown, the tourism minister Nuri Ersoy said Tuesday. "They freely tour with their passports, visit museum and archaeological sites. Being a tourist is advantageous in Turkey," said Ersoy, as quoted by AA.

Turkey's Health Ministry logged 37,312 new infections, bringing the total caseload to over 4.6 million, including 38,711 covid-related deaths, as of Monday.

Earlier this year, Turkey began the inoculation drive, with over 21.52 million jabs administered so far.