Turkey says to begin easing coronavirus restrictions starting March 1

Turkey will start to gradually normalize from coronavirus restrictions as of March 1, Turkey's health minister said on Saturday.

Underlining that they are working carefully on normalization steps, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that the process will start with provincial public health councils dealing with four risk levels in line with Health Ministry criteria.

Announcing earlier this week an easing of restrictions starting in March, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said provinces will be categorized as low, medium, high, or very high risk based on infection rates and the vaccination process.

Turkey on Friday reported 7,419 new coronavirus cases, including 638 symptomatic patients, according to the Health Ministry.

The country's case count passed 2.62 million, while the nationwide death toll reached 27,903, with 82 fatalities over the past day.

Since last December, Turkey has been implementing curfew on weeknights and weekends to curb the virus’ spread.

Since December 2019, when it first emerged, the pandemic has claimed more than 2.45 million lives in 192 countries and regions.

Over 110.77 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries now more than 62.38 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

The US, India, and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries in terms of cases.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan