Explained: Key highlights of Turkey's 1st June reopening plan

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced measures to ease coronavirus restrictions on Thursday, with restaurants, cafés, parks and sports facilities allowed to resume operations from 1 June, while curbs on intercity transport will be lifted, too. 

Daycare centres and kindergartens will also reopen, but the movement of teenagers and elderly people above 65 will continue to be limited for the next few weeks.

Turkey has managed to flatten the curve from an average of 4,000 to 900 cases per day in the past few weeks. The death toll has come down significantly, while the numbers of those who have recovered have risen.

The country added 30 more deaths to its total tally of 4,461. So far, it has conducted 1,928,209 tests in which almost 161,000 of them came out positive. About 124,369 of them recovered. 

Here are 15 key decisions taken by the Turkish government to steer the country towards a resumption of normal life.
1- Intercity travel restrictions will be lifted completely and will remain this fluid unless the country faces another high wave of infections. 

2- Public workers who have been on administrative leave or have been working from home, will return to offices.

3- Daycare centres and kindergartens will reopen.

4- The status of public workers who suffer from chronic conditions, who have been tracked by the Health Ministry, will be evaluated by their supervisors before they are exempt from more duty 

5- People above 65 will be allowed to leave their homes on Sundays between 14.00 and 20.00hrs.

6- Business owners above the age of 65 will be able to manage their businesses so long as they obey the social distancing and hygiene rules.

7- Those under the age of 18 will have to restrict their outings and obey the curfew rules. 

8- Except for entertainment businesses, restaurants, cafés, bakeries, gyms, swimming pools, chemists and grocery stores will be allowed to function until 22.00hrs, under the conditions of social distancing rules. 

9- Motorway service areas will be reopened and their operating hours will be re-evaluated based on the coronavirus graph and overall public health situation.

10- Beaches, national parks and gardens will become accessible until further government notice.

11- Museums and historic sites will be opened. 

12- Livestock markets will become operational on 1 June, while hippodromes will come into operation on 10 June.

13-The restrictions on Sea Tourism, the Fishery Industry and its transportation will be lifted under the condition of some rules.

14- Driving courses, language training, skill development classes, libraries, youth centres and camps, will be opened.

15- Concert halls with open-air seating, will be allowed to proceed with their performances until 24.00hrs.