Four-day nationwide curfew ends

A four-day curfew Turkey imposed on the country's 81 provinces to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak ended on May 27.

Although Turkey usually declares curfew at the weekends in the major cities, this one covered all of the country for four days to include the Eid al-Fitr, holiday which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Markets, grocery stores, greengrocers, and butchers will continue to operate from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time on May 23, but they were closed between May 24 and May 26.

Also, bakeries remained open during the four-day curfew.

The first curfew was declared on April 11-12 and followed by others in the past weeks.

Turkey has successfully managed the course of the novel coronavirus pandemic and is nearing the end of the outbreak, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on May 25.

"The picture after the normalization steps we took shows that we are on the right track," said Erdoğan in remarks for Eid al-Fitr.

The number of confirmed cases in Turkey has exceeded 157,000 while more than 120,000 people have recovered from COVID-19. The death toll from the outbreak has neared 4,400.