Curfew

Two more provinces have joined a list of Turkish cities that have made wearing face masks mandatory in public, as the country began reopening and easing measures taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak on June 1.

The eastern Aegean province of Kütahya and the eastern province of Kars have made it mandatory to its residences to wear face masks in public.

Major U.S. cities feared another night of violent protests on May 31 over the death of George Floyd in police custody, cleaning up broken glass and burned out cars after curfews failed to stop confrontations between activists and law enforcement.   

Turkey lifted a two-day-long curfew early on June 1 that was imposed in some provinces as part of efforts to contain the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 4,500 people in the country.

The curfew was in effect in 14 major provinces as well as Zonguldak province, where the prevalence of chronic respiratory diseases is high. Travel was also restricted in the provinces.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said elderly people over the age of 65 and young people under 20 will have to "wait a little more" for restrictions to ease.

The Turkish public largely complied with the four-day lockdown taken across the country, but some 48,000 people violated the curfews rules, the Interior Ministry has said.

The country imposed the nationwide curfew during Eid al-Fitr on May 23 to curb the spread of COVID-19.

As Europe starts to ease itself out of the COVID-19-related lockdown, some countries in the Western Balkans also hope they have seen the worst of the pandemic.

Montenegro and Croatia have either not registered any new cases of COVID-19 for days, or have marked only single-digit numbers, prompting a gradual easing of movement restrictions and safety measures.

Turkey's juniors got their first chance to venture outside on May 13 after weeks of partial curfew, under relaxed coronavirus restrictions.

According to an Interior Ministry circular sent to governor's offices across Turkey, people aged 14 and under were granted the chance to go outside on May 13 between 11.00 a.m. and 15.00 p.m. local time.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has proposed the government to suspend the curfew for those aged between 15 and 20 on May 19 National Youth and Sports Day.

Speaking at a press conference on May 12, CHP group deputy Engin Altay said allowing young people on May 20-21, but not on May 19 means undermining the importance of the national day.

The Serbian parliament has lifted the state of emergency which was announced on March 15th because of the new coronavirus.

Serbia has met all the conditions recommended by the World Health Organization, Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said, addressing lawmakers:

Turkey on May 7 eased curfew restrictions for people over the age of 65, those with chronic illnesses and young people under 20 years old.

In a statement, the country's Interior Ministry said that people over 65 years old would be allowed to leave their homes, remaining within walking distance and wearing masks, on May 10 between 11.00 a.m. 3:00 p.m. local time (0800-1200GMT).