Turkey lifts weekend lockdowns in low and medium-risk cities

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on March 1 that Turkey will lift weekend lockdowns in low and medium-risk cities and limit the restrictions to just Sundays in high and very high-risk cities as it starts a "controlled normalization" of coronavirus measures.

Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Erdoğan said Turkey's nationwide curfew for the weekdays, from 9.00 p.m. to 5.00 a.m., will continue.

The president also said that face-to-face education will also start in low and medium-risk provinces, including middle and high schools.

All pre-school education institutions across Turkey - elementary schools, grades 8 through 12 - to resume in-person classes, he added.

Erdoğan said the list of measures would be updated every two weeks on a province-by-province basis.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca shared a map of Turkey from his Twitter account, categorizing the provinces per their risk for the spread of COVID-19.

Turkey's biggest city, Istanbul, was categorized as high risk, while the capital Ankara was in the medium-risk category.