Turkey extends operating hours of restaurants for weekend delivery service

Turkey's Interior Ministry on Dec. 7 announced that restaurants are now allowed to operate between 10 a.m. - midnight on weekends for the delivery service, as is the case for weekdays.

Duvar English

Turkey's Interior Ministry on Dec. 7 issued a notice extending the operating hours of restaurants for delivery service on weekends.

The authorities had previously announced that food delivery service would be allowed to operate between 10 am. - midnight on weekdays and between 10 am. - 8 p.m. on weekends as part of the COVID-19 measures.

The Interior Ministry on Dec. 7 eased some of the COVID-19 measures, saying that restaurants are now allowed to operate for delivery service between 10 a.m. - midnight on weekends, as is the case for weekdays.

Turkey last month extended curfews to weeknights and put a full lockdown in place over the weekends amid an increasing number of COVID-19 cases. The new curfews began last week, with some sectors including production, logistics, health care, agriculture and forestry having been exempted from the curfews.

Turkey also restricted senior citizens aged 65 and older and youth aged 20 and younger from going out except for between the hours of 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. The senior citizens and youth have been also banned from using public transportation.

On Dec. 7, the Interior Ministry said that youth aged between 18 and 20 are allowed to use inter-city transportation if they are visiting their family in another city.

Youth and children under the age of 20 may use both intra-city and inter-city transportation if they have their parents/guardians with them, according to the ministry's notice.

Turkey's daily COVID -19 deaths rose to a record 203 in the last 24 hours, data from the Health Ministry showed on Dec. 7, bringing the country's total death toll to 15,103 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Turkey also recorded 32,137 new COVID-19 cases, including asymptomatic ones, in the last 24 hours. For four months, Ankara only reported daily symptomatic cases but has reported all cases since Nov. 25. Historical data for all cases and the cumulative case total are still not available.