Turkey To Ease COVID-19 Restrictions Post Eid Holiday

Turkey will gradually ease lockdown restrictions after the Eid holiday as coronavirus cases and fatalities continue to ebb nationwide, the country's president said Wednesday.

"Hopefully, by bringing the pandemic under control, we will take normalization steps in a controlled manner after Eid," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a video message celebrating the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday that will start on Thursday.

Erdogan said "good days are ahead even though we are having a bitter holiday due to the problems caused by the pandemic."

He recalled that last Eid, Turkey was hoping to overcome COVID-19, but the new waves across the world in the following months affected the country.

He said that restrictions became a necessity with rising rates of cases and deaths, as the country is under full lockdown until the end of the Eid holiday on May 17. -